Hearing at Risk for the Young
There’s more distressing news concerning the hearing health of young adults… this time from down under. According to a survey hearing loss and tinnitus among the “IPod” generation is reaching extreme levels.
Apparently more than 70% of young adults in Australia – between 18 and 24 – have tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is the first sign of hearing loss. According to a new survey from Australian Hearing, headphones are to blame.
According to News.com.au, Professor Harvey Dillon, director of the National Acoustics Laboratory at Australian Hearing, said that younger respondents had a poor understanding of hearing loss. 25% of them thought that damaged ears would repair themselves and hearing would return.
“Older Australians, I might add, were much wiser, almost none of them thought that,” said Dillon on Fairfax radio.
He said that when people go to noisy parties and concerts the damage happens in two stages – both in the inner ear. One is temporary, one is permanent.
“We tend to notice the temporary loss of hearing and we notice it come back over the next day or two. What we don’t notice is that at the same time, in the same place but through a different mechanism, there’s also a permanent loss going on. A few hair cells dying here, a few hair cells dying there and they add up from time to time.”
According to Dr John D’Arcy, headphones can be used safely. He urges people to set the volume at a level which allows the user to hear someone at arm’s length without them having to shout.
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There’s more distressing news concerning the hearing health of young adults… this time from down under. According to a survey hearing loss and tinnitus among the “IPod” generation is reaching extreme levels.
Apparently more than 70% of young adults in Australia – between 18 and 24 – have tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is the first sign of hearing loss. According to a new survey from Australian Hearing, headphones are to blame.
According to News.com.au, Professor Harvey Dillon, director of the National Acoustics Laboratory at Australian Hearing, said that younger respondents had a poor understanding of hearing loss. 25% of them thought that damaged ears would repair themselves and hearing would return.
“Older Australians, I might add, were much wiser, almost none of them thought that,” said Dillon on Fairfax radio.
He said that when people go to noisy parties and concerts the damage happens in two stages – both in the inner ear. One is temporary, one is permanent.
“We tend to notice the temporary loss of hearing and we notice it come back over the next day or two. What we don’t notice is that at the same time, in the same place but through a different mechanism, there’s also a permanent loss going on. A few hair cells dying here, a few hair cells dying there and they add up from time to time.”
According to Dr John D’Arcy, headphones can be used safely. He urges people to set the volume at a level which allows the user to hear someone at arm’s length without them having to shout.
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June 12th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
As a teacher, I see (and hear) students with their IPods attached to themselves throughout the day.
Many of them have the volume turned up so loudly, I can hear the music from several feet away.
Kids have told me that hearing loss won’t happen to them, or if it does, someone will have a cure for it by the time they need one.
Being a tinnitus sufferer, I worry about their hearing health, but they don’t listen.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:14 am
I am 21 years old and suffered extreme hearing loss accompanied by really loud tinnitus 2 years ago, when I was 19. I always had problems with my left ear, starting when I was young and had many ear infections. Around 11 or 12, I started to listen to my music extremely loud in my room and went to loud concerts. Parties, too, were always loud.
My hearing loss came as a huge shock and now I’m extremely sensitive to any noise. I wear earplugs many places (parties, concerts, sometimes even loud restaurants, and clubs), and my music is never too loud because of the tinnitus. I see all my friends walk around tuned into their iPod throughout the day and going to loud places. I try to warn them, but everyone (like I once thought) thinks they are invincible.
I, too, worry about the hearing of my generation.