Loud headphones putting young people at risk for hearing damage

Young people are often unaware of how easy it is to cause themselves hearing damage when listening to music, says the president of the tinnitusassociation of Quebec.

• Hearing protected by limiting audio devices to an hour a day

"Right now more and more studies are published in the literature statingthat the use of portable listening devices are too high," saidSylvie Hbert.

Hbert, who is also professor of psychology in the School of Speech Therapy and Audiology at the University of Montreal, says the tinnitus association known as Acouphnes Qubec is seeing more people at a younger age with hearing problems.

"This can cause cumulative damage. Young people don't realise it right away,"she said. "At some point they will have a high probability of having hearing loss and tinnitus."

The World Health Organization says 1.1 billion teenagers are at risk of developing damage or hearing loss"due to the unsafe use of personal audio devices and exposure to damaging levels of sound in noisy entertainment venues."

Damage is permanent

When the ear is exposed to very loud sounds,Hbertsaid, the delicate haircells in the inner ear are damaged.

"Once they're damaged they're gone, they're destroyedand they don't regenerate."

Hearing aids canamplify the sound, but they cannot replicate the clarity and sound quality provided by hair cells.

"If you go to a dance club, and you areexposed to very loud music, as soon asyougetout of the dance club sometimes you will have a temporary hearing loss that will recover to someextent;you will have ringing in yourears," she said.

Although people can experience short termhearing damage,it can take years for the damage to lead to hearing loss and tinnitus.

Tinnitus, the phantom sound

People with tinnitushear a ringing or whistling sound that tinnitus experts call a phantom sound.

"There is something wrong that is interpreted as a sound in the neural signal," Hbert said."Somewhere in the auditory pathways there is some signal that is interpreted by the brain as a sound."

What is terrible is that it's voluntary exposure to noise and high sound levels, so it's completely controllable- SylvieHbert, presidentAcouphnesQubec

Hbert said there also can bepsychological and emotional influences on tinnitus, but it's not clear what the relationship is. "People are really disturbed by it and their life quality is really, really affected."

About 15 per cent of the population hassome form of tinnitus.Sheestimates between 60,000 and 80,000 people in Quebec are suffering from serious forms oftinnitus, and that more and more young people are being diagnosed.

"What is terrible is that it's voluntary exposure to noise and high sound levels, so it's completely controllable."

How loud is too loud?

Hbert has the following suggestionsfor protection againsthearing damage.

• Any noise you have to shout over in order to be heardis too loud
• Keep your volumeto one third of the maximum levelon your listening device
• Once you go over one half of the maximumvolumeyou need to shorten the exposure
• At 85 decibels or higher people should limit exposure to eight hours
• Decibels rise logarithmically, so increasing the decibels by only threemeans you have to cut your exposure in half at 88 decibels your exposure should be four hours; at 91 it should be two hours
• If holding your ear buds atarms length you can still hear music, it's probably too loud
• Noise-cancellingheadphones that cover the ear may be safer since they allow for more clarity at lower decibel levels
• Quality of ear buds and headphones vary
• Some dance clubs are so loud, people shouldn't expose their ears for more than a minute