A study conducted by researchers, led by academics at the University of South Carolina in the US have found that hundreds of millions of teenagers and young adults across the world are at risk of losing their hearing due to the use of electronics such as headphones, earphones, earbuds and by regularly attending events with loud music.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that more than 430 million people of all ages worldwide are experiencing hearing problems.
The researchers have acknowledged that the findings did not account for “demographic factors” or “changes to policy on safe listening in some countries”, but concluded that exposure to loud music at venues and through personal listening devices could mean as many as a billion teenagers and young adults could be at risk of hearing loss in later life.
The study examined rates of unsafe listening around the world.
The team of researchers estimates that 24% of 12 – to 34-year-olds are listening to music on personal listening devices at an “unsafe level”.
A South African audiologist Lihle Mghobozi from the South African Audiologist Association said exposure to loud sound puts youth at risk of losing hearing.
“Most commonly if you are starting to have or starting to develop a hearing loss you may hear some ringing sound. But some people actually don’t even get the ringing sound and sometimes it’s also a product of trauma. Maybe you have been in a traumatic experience and you experience it again, you get triggered and you may experience ringing in your ear,” she said.
Mghobozi shared several safety tips for those who spend most of their time listening to loud sound be it at clubs or at work.
“The music you hear at the club is usually at hundred and twenty, basically above 90 GBA, if you’re exposed just for eight hours, so if you expose yourself for let’s say an hour, two hours every other weekends, you do pose a threat on yourself, “said Mghobozi.
She said those who are employed in an environment that requires or exposes them to loud sound over an entire shift, their employer is required by legislation to have a hearing conservation project, where an audiologist comes and accesses the environment to see if it needs inspection and emphasised the importance of wearing hearing protection.
“You have to wear a hearing protector. So using protection is the most common method that you (employers) use to prevent employees from damaging their hearing.
“If you are exposed to noise for four working days, so that’s 8 for 9 hours you’re putting yourself at risk of noise induced hearing loss.
