Listening to high volume music on personal music players for at least one hour a day, every day for five years, would put five to 10 per cent of these listeners at risk of permanent hearing loss.

This was the outcome of scientific research that EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kouneva cited as a reason behind the European Commission's (EC) intention to introduce new rules that would further limit the volume on personal music players sold in the bloc.

At a media conference on September 28 2009, Kuneva said "European regulators ... have a duty to react."

The EC had issued a mandate to the European Standardisation bodies to develop new technical safety standards for personal music players, Kouneva said.

Those new safety standards would limit volume levels on personal music players even further than current EU regulation already allows for, by as much as 20 per cent according to some news agencies.

The new standards, Kouneva said, would "ensure that normal default settings on a personal music player do not expose you to a risk to hearing."

According to Kouneva, consumers would still be allowed to override the standard settings if they wanted to.

The current mandate at this stage does not provide detailed prescriptive technical solutions, Kouneva said.

"We do not want to stifle innovation and creativity in this sector. It is for industry and all other partners to work together in the coming months to find 'smart solutions' and get this right," she said.