It isn't the actual earbuds that's causing the damage, but the fact that people have the volume jacked up to the highest level that causes it. It's the same with cigarettes. On their own, they're not harming anyone. However, once they are LIT and people SMOKE them, THEN that's when they become harmful.
agree, you´ll clearly be fine if the music is at an ok level of volume. but, going with the article here, earbuds are closer to the ear and all, and that´s a threat to hearing.
I think the biggest problem with those cheapo earbuds (including the iPod one's) is that they do not protect from surrounding noise, so a lot of people turn up the volume to 'hear' the music.It would be better to spend a few extra bucks on highquality 'in ear' style earbuds who do cancel a lot of the surrounding noise.(or use active noise canceling heaphones like the Bose Quiet Comport 2 )I use SONY MDR-EX70's (older model), very small, very good quality and you need only a very low volume to hear the music...Deeplinking to Amazon: MDR E70's(or you could go for the Shure E4's)
But the problem are not the headphones, is the volume that you play the music that goes directly to ear, but I guess that if you played it very high is because the ambient sound...I guess that earjams are a solution.