Are you in the habit of using headphones to listen to music? If yes, your chances of suffering hearing loss are high. Headphones are very popular amongst young people and teens who usually connect them to their laptops and personal listening devices like the MP3 player, iPods, mobile phones, among others, to listen to music. But findings from a new study reveal that listening to loud music through headphones for too long might pose a significant risk to hearing.
The 24-year study of adolescent girls, which appears online on the September 2010 edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health, involved 8,710 girls of lower socioeconomic status, whose average age was about 16. Their hearing was tested when they entered a residential facility in the United States.
“I had the rare opportunity, as an audiologist, to see how this population changed over the years,” said Abbey Berg, lead study author and a professor in the Department of Biology & Health Sciences at Pace University in New York.
Scientists have been warning that exposure to loud sounds can cause hearing damage. According to a story published by the online health news portal, sciencedaily.com, on March 1, 2008, otology research shows that many teens and adults set their headphones at volumes that can cause hearing damage. It notes that exposure to excessively loud sounds damages the stereocilia in the inner ear, and repeated exposure can cause hearing loss.
Loud sounds stress and could damage the delicate hair cells in the inner ear that convert mechanical vibrations in the air (sound) into the electrical signals that the brain interprets as sound. If exposed to loud noises for a long time, the hair cells can become permanently damaged and no longer work, producing hearing loss.
Noise-induced hearing loss, according to sciencedaily.com, can be caused by two types of noise – sudden bursts, such as firearms or fireworks; or continuous exposure to loud noise, such as motorized recreational vehicles, loud sporting events, power tools, farming equipment, or amplified music.
Hearing loss as a result of continuous exposure depends on how loud the sound is and how often and for how long the ears are exposed to it. It takes repeated exposures over many years to cause a noise-induced hearing loss in both children and adults.
Berg says that in the 24 years, high-frequency hearing loss, a common casualty of excessive noise exposure, nearly doubled, from 10.1 per cent in 1985 to 19.2 per cent.
Between 2001, when testers first asked about it, and 2008, personal music player use rose fourfold, from 18.3 per cent to 76.4 per cent. High-frequency hearing loss increased from 12.4 per cent to 19.2 per cent during these years, while the proportion of girls reporting tinnitus – ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears – nearly tripled, from 4.6 percent to 12.5 percent.
Overall, girls using the devices were 80 per cent more likely to have impaired hearing than those who did not; of the teens reporting tinnitus, all but one (99.7 percent) were users.
She says, however, that just because there’s an association, it doesn’t mean cause and effect. She said that for the girls who took part in the study, other aspects of their lives – poverty, poor air quality, substance abuse, risk-taking behaviour – may have added to the effects of noise exposure.
“This paper offers compelling evidence that the inappropriate use of headphones is indeed affecting some people’s hearing, and the number of ‘some people’ is not small,” says Brian Fligor, director of diagnostic audiology at Children’s Hospital Boston, US.
The level of impairment detected in this study might have been relatively subtle, “but the point is that it is completely avoidable,” Fligor, who has no affiliation with the study, notes.
“The ear is going to be damaged throughout your lifetime; what we’re seeing here resembles early onset of age-related hearing loss – you might think of it as prematurely aging the ear,” he warns.
“I don’t demonise headphones,” says Fligor, who encourages moderation, not prohibition. He says that at reasonable volume – conversational or slightly louder – the headphone poses little risk However, he adds, “It’s when you start overworking the ear that you get problems.”
Berg says that her findings suggest the need for more effective educational efforts to reduce unsafe listening behaviour, particularly among disadvantaged youth. “You have to target them at a much younger age, when they are liable to be more receptive,” she says.
According to sciencedaily.com, hearing experts say 85 decibels is safe, but it adds that, a person can tolerate about two hours of 91 dB per day before risking hearing loss. Researchers, it notes, recommend listening to iPods for – hours a day with earphones if the volume is at 80 per cent of maximum levels. Listening at full volume is not recommended for more than five minutes per day using the earphones that come with the player.
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