A WHO-ITU consultation on the Make Listening Safe initiative was held in Geneva, Switzerland on 6-7 March 2017 involving members of the expert groups and other stakeholders, with the objectives to: review progress made in the different areas of work as part of this initiative, determine the appropriate exposure limits for safe listening and develop a health communications strategy and a research protocol for determining the incidence of noise-induced hearing loss in recreational settings.
The meeting highlighted the need for a collaborative and consistent approach towards safe listening which takes into account the viewpoints of all stakeholders. The key outcomes with respect to different areas are:
- The drafting of global standards for safe listening on personal audio devices will continue to be led by the unit within the ITU telecommunication standardization sector which addresses this issue.
- Exposure limits for estimation of daily or weekly sound allowance were discussed and a consensus reached.
- The safe listening software application will be revised as per inputs.
- A policy brief on integrating health communications on safe listening as part of the global standards for personal audio systems will be finalized by early 2018. Key questions for developing a standardized research protocol for determining the incidence of noise-induced hearing loss in recreational settings were addressed.