New study claims gamers at risk of hearing loss, tinnitus -.

A new article published by BMJ Public Health suggests that if you are a gamer, you are at higher risk for hearing loss and tinnitus due to exposure to potentially unsafe sound levels. The overall review included 14 studies looking at the cases of more than 50,000 people.

Of course, you can just turn down the volume on your game if it gets too loud, but apparently the volume level is not the only problem, and the time spent with audio blasting in through your headphones can also be a detrimental factor to your hearing. If you have a friend who also likes to shout down the microphone, you may want to start muting them to save your ears.
The BMJ urges people to make people aware of this problem, just as live music is known to cause hearing problems. An adult can listen to 80 decibels (dB) for forty hours a week, but beyond that he can only listen to 85 decibels for four hours a week and 90 decibels (dB) for one hour and fifteen minutes. Children should listen to these sound levels for even less time.

Since shooting games in the study were found to have audio levels between 88.5 and 91.2 dB, it is clear that you may want to keep your audio in games low, even if you want to hear enemy footsteps approaching.