According to seattlepi.com, a Lousiana man is suing Apple about the potential hearing damage that might be caused by iPods - even though he doesn't claim to have suffered any himself.
Seemingly, John Kiel Patterson wants to turn the case into a class-action suit and aims to see all iPods modded to be less of a risk, since he's not happy that, currently, Apple USA only includes in-pack a less than detailed warning that, "permanent hearing loss may occur if earphones or headphones are used at high volume."
JKP is reported to allege that iPods "can produce sounds of more than 115 decibels, a volume that can damage the hearing of a person exposed to the sound for more than 28 seconds per day" and are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss".
The report says that "Apple was forced to pull the iPod from store shelves in France and upgrade software on the device to limit sound to 100 decibels, but has not followed suit in the United States, according to the complaint". There's no suggestion in the complaint that iPods are any more likely to cause hearing damage than other portable music players so our presumption is that JKP has looked around to see who is the biggest name in MP3 players and then taken aim at Apple.
All very understandable, whether or not he's a gold-digger or genuinely intent on trying to stop people's hearing being damaged by using earpieces to listen to overly loud music.
However - and without wishing in any way to diminish the seriousness of potential hearing damage - the class action we'd really like to see brought against the ever-vociferous Apple is one that puts a stop to all the noise the company makes about iPods!
Your thoughts welcomed in the HEXUS.community. But no shouting, please.
