2009/490/EC: Commission Decision of 23 June 2009 on the safety requirements to be met by European standards for personal music players pursuant to Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)

• CELEX: Directive 2001/95/EC
• Articles: 3

Article 1 Purpose

The purpose of this Decision is to establish the safety requirement on the basis of which the Commission shall request the relevant standardisation bodies to establish standards for ensuring that, under normal usage conditions, exposure to sound from personal music players does not pose a risk to hearing. The requirements for personal music players shall take full account of the Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks on ‘Potential health risks of exposure to noise from personal music players and mobile phones including a music playing function’.

Article 2 Definition

For the purpose of this Decision, a ‘personal music player’ means a portable device, that is not covered by Directive 1999/5/EC or Directive 2006/95/EC, with headphones or earphones, used to listen to recorded, generated or broadcasted sound.

Article 3 Requirements

1.   For the purpose of Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2001/95/EC, the safety requirement for personal music players shall be the following:

Personal music players shall be designed and manufactured in a manner that ensures that, under reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, they are inherently safe and do not cause hearing damage.

2.   The requirement set out in paragraph 1 shall include in particular the following:

1.

Exposure to sound levels shall be time limited to avoid hearing damage. At 80 dB(A) exposure time shall be limited to 40 hours/week, whereas at 89 dB(A) exposure time shall be limited to 5 hours/week. For other exposure levels a linear intra- and extrapolation applies. Account shall be taken of the dynamic range of sound and the reasonably foreseeable use of the products.

2.

Personal music players shall provide adequate warnings on the risks involved in using the device and to the ways of avoiding them and information to users in cases where exposure poses a risk of hearing damage.