This is getting to be mundane yet it never refuses to attract the annoyance of the public: when companies paste cautionary statements in their product labels, which to some finicky consumers can appear misleading – or something like the alleged damaging loudness of the gadget in question -- by Motorola.
It can only get ambiguous because, according to one Martin Alpert from California, Motorola had “actual and constructive knowledge” that its Bluetooth headsets “posed a serious risk of harm to consumers from noise-induced hearing loss during the headsets' normal and intended use.” Thus prompted the man to file a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.
The lawsuit, with unspecified damages, is seeks class action status and claims that Motorola has put the hearing of millions of consumers at risk because its Bluetooth headsets exceed safe decibel levels. Accordingly, nothing in the company’s safety documentation makes mention of the danger about the headsets' decibel level. In effect, Motorola has allegedly concealed safety information pertaining to the headsets' tendency to cause gradual hearing loss.
Although the consumers cannot determine their claim without resorting to scientific finding, a test recently performed by the American Speech-Hearing-Language Association disclosed that, indeed, Moto’s H700 model headset produced decibel levels of up to 106 decibels.
We hear the plaintiff’s grumbling loud and clear. Motorola’s latest mobile phone models have safety warning that says “hearing loss can be caused by high decibel levels” when in fact Motorola's headsets have volume controls which, accordingly, “produce sounds exceeding 85 decibels, with sound often peaking in excess of 100 decibels.”
Here, sorry but we haven’t been reading that Moto booklet. But it’s obvious that there’s the warning and there’s the very hazard – all in the same package. To some, that is just plain ridiculous. Yet you hear people having more trouble with headsets not being loud enough. If gadget companies care enough, they may find it harder to determine the consumer’s definition of a quality product.
Will this rather routine case finally tuck some decibels up its ears? We have one man to thank if Moto pays up with some freebies.