IF there’s one thing that makes air travel bearable, it’s the movies. The seats may be uncomfortable and the food might taste like porridge, but if the inflight entertainment is good then all is forgiven.

Settling into an omnibus of Mr Bean reruns sounds like the perfect way to kill time on a long haul flight; but if you only have cheap headphones with you then you might be better off keeping it on silent and reading the subtitles. That’s because research shows that listening on headphones while travelling on a plane subjects your ears to harmful levels of noise that can cause long-lasting hearing damage.

It’s not just on planes where there is a problem with loud noise, however. With more people using headphones to zone out while walking, jogging and waiting for the bus, health experts are increasingly worried.

Research shows that half of all young adults aged 12-35 years are regularly listening to music on a personal audio device at dangerously high levels.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) – the international authority on all things medical – has published a report warning that a billion young people are in danger of losing their hearing due to 'unsafe listening’ practices.

Listening while flying is particularly unsafe because the background engine noise is so loud that turning the volume up high is the only way to drown it out. There are other danger times though, such as listening to music or podcasts while walking alongside a busy road or on a noisy train.

It’s not usually a one-off blast that causes the problem – but many months of repeated exposure to noises that are too loud. It’s difficult to tell what’s too loud and so the WHO advises that we listen to music via headphones for no longer than an hour.

Volume should be no higher than 80 per cent of the device’s maximum. They say that listening for longer is ok, providing it’s turned down to 60 per cent – the equivalent loudness of a microwave beep (85 decibels).

If you come home after a night out and your ears are ringing then damage has been done. Our hearing is precious and every time it gets strained, tiny sound sensing ‘hair cells’ deep in the ear are killed. It’s therefore always a good idea to wear ear earplugs when going to a sports event, night club or music performance. Guitarists and drummers need to be extra careful – it is estimated that hearing loss in rock musicians is approximately 13.3 per cent.

The WHO also recommends ditching your cheap earbud headphones and wearing a pair of carefully fitted, audio cancelling headphones instead. In-ear headphones may fit snugly but are notorious for producing loud, poor quality sound. If the noise cancelling headphones are too pricey and you find yourself in economy class then all is not lost. I suggest you stick to watching Mr Bean. It’s funny and he doesn’t say much anyway.