The iPod: Dangerous to your health?

I've read an article and heard today on CBC News about how the iPod can be dangerous to your hearing. It has to deal with listening to music at a loud volume and that the headphones that are included with the iPod act as amplifiers that can amplify and absorb the noise, which can cause damage to your hearing. The remedy? Apparently, to listen to the music at a comfortable volume so that nobody else can listen to it, as well as perhaps switching to a different earphones.



I certainly like the iPod headphones because they're small and fit right in my ear, and it doesn't look so wierd. I've tried other headphones that are foldable and go over the ear (from Sony) and even though they are good, they just are too big and don't feel so comfortable than the earbuds. Of course, the disadvantages with the earbuds (which has happened to me numerous times), is that the soft covering of the earbuds can easily come off or rip.

So what do people think about this? I think it's just not the iPod, there's been many articles about how listening to loud music is dangerous to your hearing. It just so happens that this becomes big because it refers to the iPod which is the ubiquitous music device out there (I have the iPod mini).