Louisiana resident John Kiel Patterson claims Apple iPod causes hearing damage if played too loudly, and he wants to be compensated for it.

But in filing a lawsuit against Apple on the matter--a case he hopes to get certified as a class-action lawsuit--Patterson does not claim to have sustained any hearing damage as a result of his iPod use.

The iPod players are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss," according to the complaint filed Tuesday in US District Court in San Jose. Patterson, who bought his iPod last year, seeks compensation for unspecified damages and upgrades that will make iPods safer.

But Apple does indeed ship a warning with each iPod that cautions "permanent hearing loss may occur if earphones or headphones are used at high volume."

The lawsuit says that is not enough, and that Apple should advise listeners as to what a safe volume level is and include a meter to alert users of the decibel level at which they are listening.

The lawsuit comes just a week after a Wisconsin hearing specialist warned users of the in-ear headphones so prevalent on the ubiquitous iPods and a slew of other MP3 players to restrict their use to two hours a day and to keep the volume at a reasonable level.

Apple has sold more than 42 million iPods since they went on sale in 2001, including 14 million in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The complaint contends that Apple was forced to pull the iPod from store shelves in France and upgrade software on the device to limit sound to 100 decibels, but that it has not done the same in the US. The players can produce sounds of more than 115 decibels, about the sound level of an air-raid siren and a volume that can damage the hearing of a person exposed to the sound for more than 28 seconds per day, according to the complaint.

"Millions of consumers have had their hearing put at risk by Apple's conduct," states the suit, filed by the Seattle-based firm of Hagens, Berman, Sobol, Shapiro.

Apple declined to comment on the case.

Apple has faced other suits over the iPod, including one over complaints that the iPod nano scratches too easily. That case was also brought by Hagens, Berman, Sobol, Shapiro, and has resulted in Apple including protective cases with all new nanos it sells.