Emphasizing the fact that portable music players have become a cause for concern, the European Union has announced a new set of standards that govern the volume of the MP3 players - thereby hinting the need for "safe exposure levels" to music.

With the new policy essentially determining the extent of loudness of the music to be played, not only will default volume settings on iPods and other music-centric devices have to be lowered, but manufacturers will also be required to add warning labels to their devices.

The recent move results from the EU's Scientific Committee's last year finding that that an irreversible hearing damage can be caused from exposure to high volume of the music players for long periods at a stretch.

Going by the standard set by the European Commission's new policy, iPods and other MP3 players need to have a default maximum volume of 80 decibels.

Though most sound rankings would deem that level to be "very loud," the fact is that currently, the loudest volume of most of the MP3 players varies in the range of 115 to 125 decibels.

However, the recent EU volume policy does not apparently mandate volume controls on music players. It says: "Higher exposure levels can be permitted provided that they have been intentionally selected by the user and the product incorporates a reliable means to inform the user of the risks."