IT has long surprised and worried me that so many young people go around plugged into mp3 players with music blaring from the headphones.

If I can hear the music so loudly, just think how much damage it may be doing to the person inflicting it on themselves.

Thankfully I am blessed with good hearing but my late father suffered from tinnitus so I know what a misery that can be.

But a recent survey reveals that most people don’t know how much damage loud music can do to their hearing.

Action on Hearing Loss discovered when it questioned 1,000 people that 83 per cent of them had suffered from temporary tinnitus and had “ringing in their ears”.

But only one in five would be “a bit worried” if they got tinnitus permanently.

Eight out of 10 people admitted they did not know loud music can damage their hearing or cause tinnitus.

Dangerous volume levels of people’s mp3 players concern the charity. There is good news on the horizon as, from next year, it will become European law that all new mp3 players have a maximum default volume setting of 85dB.

But the research in the UK revealed one in three people would override this setting even though this could lead to them damaging their hearing or developing tinnitus.

I do not own an mp3 player but I learn that they can reach volumes in excess of 100dB which is the equivalent of a pneumatic drill close by.

I don’t think many people would choose to stand so close to such a drill for long, but many spend hours listening to music at the same level.

Action on Hearing Loss campaigns for people to look after their hearing. Let’s hope its advice does not fall on deaf ears.

As someone who is quite happy to wear the same old (cheap) trousers, shirt and jumper for years on end, the clothes buying habits of women have always amazed me.

I think of the number of items I have seen lying forgotten in wardrobes, still sporting price tags, and give a heavy sigh.

I now learn that the average British woman spends five whole shopping days searching for the perfect little black dress (LBD), lashing out �125 on it (plus double that for matching shoes and handbag) – and only wears it twice.

Research reveals that eight out of 10 women own an LBD and of those that don’t, nearly half are busy searching for the ideal one.

The major reason why they don’t wear their LBD very often is because they are scared of the people in their social circle seeing them in the same outfit more than once. Surely LBDs, by their very nature, are so similar that they are difficult to tell apart.

There is also the fear that the “special feeling” a lady gets when wearing one will disappear if it is given too many outings.

I’m glad that men don’t have such things to worry about.