OK, that might be a tad alarmist. The article that Newsday documents problems caused by too-loud personal music players. (It's not quite fair to single out the iPod, but let's face it, the iPod is where its at, Daddy-O.)

The long and short of it is this: iPods played at maximum volume using earbuds are not safe, especially for extended periods of time. (Looks like there's more than one way that iPod earbuds are dangerous!)

This is part of the reason that I use outisde-the-ear headphones. The extra 10 or so decibels caused by earbuds can be a real ear-splitter, even when the iPod isn't at maximum volume.

Shortly after iPod came out, they were temporarily banned in Europe, until Apple modified them so that they wouldn't play over 100 decibels. Frankly, I think they should all be modified as such, OR they should have some way of detecting what kind of speakers/headphones are attached, and automatically adjust the volume accordingly.