Weekly challenge: turn down the volume on your headphones

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

After reading findings from a new study documenting 116 recent injuries and deaths related to headphone use while walking outdoors, I almost proposed a total ban on outdoor use of earbuds and other headphones as a weekly challenge. But then I realized that may be asking too much and few would take me up on it -- including yours truly who loves to run in the park with the radio blasting in my ears.

Instead, I’m asking you to turn down the volume when you’re moving about outdoors not only to protect your hearing, but to protect yourself from injury from oncoming cars, passing bikes, and, yes, crossing trains. (The University of Maryland researchers were spurred to review headphone-associated accidents after a headphone-wearing Maryland teen was struck by a train that he didn’t realize was coming.)

While the researchers couldn’t rule out suicidal intent as a factor in the deaths and injuries, they cited previous research showing two likely contributors that raise the risk of accidents in headphone wearers: distraction from visual and auditory cues in the surrounding environments and “inattentional blindness” that makes it hard for the brain to process auditory input from multiple sources.

So turn down the volume on your headphones this week, and considering turn them off all together when you’re crossing busy intersections or exercising on heavily trafficked roads and bike routes. Here are other ways to protect your hearing and check out our new Get Moving fitness blog.

Deborah Kotz can be reached at dkotz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @debkotz2.