BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Millions of youngsters across Europe may have chances to experience whole or partial hearing loss after five years, if they keep on listening to MP3 players, at too high volume for more than five hours a week, European scientists warned.

The scientists’ study, attacked the concept of “leisure noise,” saying children and teenagers should be protected from high volume of sound and loud mobile phones are next target of criticism.

“There has been increasing concern about exposure from the new generation of personal music players which can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality,” the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement.

“Risk for hearing loss depends on both, sound level and exposure time,” it said. More and more teenagers were exposed to the visible threat that leisure noise posed to hearing.

According to a survey, almost 50 to 100 million people use portable music players daily. The researcher calculated five to ten percent listeners at risk, meaning figure could reach up to 10 million people in the EU.

Estimated unit sale of portable audio devices, for last four years was between 184 and 246 million, of which MP3 players range between 124 and 165 million.

“I am concerned that so many young people … who are frequent users of personal music players and mobile phones at high acoustic levels, may be unknowingly damaging their hearing irrevocably,” she said.