Going Deaf 30 Years Too Early
I’m not giving my daughter an MP3 player anytime soon. She could risk going deaf 30-40 years earlier than the norm, if I did.
That’s what a large-scale study in the U.K. has found. Young people with iPods often listen to music for a length of time at high volume levels. Ouch.
The Times of London reports that more than 50 percent of those between age 16 and 24 listen to their MP3 players more than an hour a day. 20 percent spend more than 21 hours a week plugged in. Thing is, over two thirds - 68 percent of the group - don’t realize that listening at a loud volume causes lasting damage.
So lots of young people are permanently damaging their hearing.
Vivienne Michael, the chief executive of Deafness Research UK, said: ‘A generation ago we would see people going deaf in their 60s or 70s, but we’re now seeing more people going deaf in their forties, which is very worrying.’
People who are now in their 40s were listening on their walkmans a couple of decades ago. But MP3 players can be even more damaging due to the kind of earset that’s used.
To sum it up: any noise above 105 decibels can cause irreversible harm.
Guess how high iPods allow you to turn up the volume. 120 decibels. Which happens to be as loud as an ambulance siren. When one of those passes I’ve always had to hold onto my ears.
What happens is that this loud noise kills the hair cells in the ears that pick up sounds and process them. These hair cells gradually die as people reach old age.
So, the louder the noise and the longer the exposure to it, the more hair cells get destroyed. Irreversibly.
If other people can hear your MP3 player, it’s too loud. The 60-60 rule is this. Users shouldn’t listen at more than 60 percent of maximum volume for more than an hour.
Imagine losing your hearing. At any age. Pretty grim thought. “We don’t want the MP3 generation to go deaf in their thirties or forties,” Michael said.
Why do people want to tune out the world with loud volume. Stress, stress and more stress. From high school through college to securing that first job the emotional, social and mental stress can lead youngsters to tune out. They get addicted to the adrenaline induced by loud noise.
Craving that ‘alive’ feeling because life is dull is a pretty common. But doing it with loud, low frequency pounding music is deadly.
The alternative to noise is calm rejuvenation. As in The Secret Power of Words and Music package. You won’t be craving loud sounds much longer when listening to these gems.
Warm Regards,
Tania Gabrielle French
P.S. The U.K. survey also showed that a third of people under the age of 35 had experienced ringing in the ears — a sign of hearing damage — after listening to loud music. Four out of five in this group also went to noisy nightclubs. Not recommended if you want to keep hearing far into the future. Enjoy the fruits of healthy sounds now.
That’s what a large-scale study in the U.K. has found. Young people with iPods often listen to music for a length of time at high volume levels. Ouch.
The Times of London reports that more than 50 percent of those between age 16 and 24 listen to their MP3 players more than an hour a day. 20 percent spend more than 21 hours a week plugged in. Thing is, over two thirds - 68 percent of the group - don’t realize that listening at a loud volume causes lasting damage.
So lots of young people are permanently damaging their hearing.
Vivienne Michael, the chief executive of Deafness Research UK, said: ‘A generation ago we would see people going deaf in their 60s or 70s, but we’re now seeing more people going deaf in their forties, which is very worrying.’
People who are now in their 40s were listening on their walkmans a couple of decades ago. But MP3 players can be even more damaging due to the kind of earset that’s used.
To sum it up: any noise above 105 decibels can cause irreversible harm.
Guess how high iPods allow you to turn up the volume. 120 decibels. Which happens to be as loud as an ambulance siren. When one of those passes I’ve always had to hold onto my ears.
What happens is that this loud noise kills the hair cells in the ears that pick up sounds and process them. These hair cells gradually die as people reach old age.
So, the louder the noise and the longer the exposure to it, the more hair cells get destroyed. Irreversibly.
If other people can hear your MP3 player, it’s too loud. The 60-60 rule is this. Users shouldn’t listen at more than 60 percent of maximum volume for more than an hour.
Imagine losing your hearing. At any age. Pretty grim thought. “We don’t want the MP3 generation to go deaf in their thirties or forties,” Michael said.
Why do people want to tune out the world with loud volume. Stress, stress and more stress. From high school through college to securing that first job the emotional, social and mental stress can lead youngsters to tune out. They get addicted to the adrenaline induced by loud noise.
Craving that ‘alive’ feeling because life is dull is a pretty common. But doing it with loud, low frequency pounding music is deadly.
The alternative to noise is calm rejuvenation. As in The Secret Power of Words and Music package. You won’t be craving loud sounds much longer when listening to these gems.
Warm Regards,
Tania Gabrielle French
P.S. The U.K. survey also showed that a third of people under the age of 35 had experienced ringing in the ears — a sign of hearing damage — after listening to loud music. Four out of five in this group also went to noisy nightclubs. Not recommended if you want to keep hearing far into the future. Enjoy the fruits of healthy sounds now.
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