Listening to music using headsets can cause deafness--study

Researchers from Ghent University, Belgium, found that an hour of listening to music on headphones may prove detrimental, resulting in hearing loss.

Daily Mail quoted Emma Harrison, Director of Public Engagement, Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), UK as saying, “Many people regularly use personal music players and are often not aware that they could be putting their hearing at risk.”

Research details
Researchers conducted study on 21 people aged 19 to 28 years, wherein they were exposed to pop and rock music using MP3 players at altering volumes for an hour.

They were then compared with a control group of 28 men and women who were not exposed to MP3 music.

For comparison, researchers conducted hearing tests before and after the exposure.

In the results, “significant threshold or emission shifts were observed between almost every session of the noise exposure group compared with the control group.”

Although this initial ‘temporary shift’ in hearing capacity could not predict permanent hearing loss, it evidenced that listening to portable media player and other such devices poses harm to ears and reduces hearing sensitivity.

The Telegraph quoted study-leader Dr. Hannah Kempler, Ghent University as saying, “Excessive noise exposure can lead to metabolic and mechanical effects resulting in alterations of the structural elements of the inner ear that contains auditory sensory cells or hair cells.”

Business Week cited Robert Frisina, associate director, International Center for Hearing and Speech Research, University of Rochester Medical School, New York as saying, “The findings are important because they document a troubling ‘temporary threshold shift’ in hearing associated with MP3 players.”

Expert advice
The European Commission has cautioned that, owing to excessive use of headphones, up to 10 percent of 30-year-olds may have to use hearing devices within the next decade.

According to hearing experts, one should implement the 60/60 rule--listening to MP3 players for a maximum of 60 minutes at just 60 percent of volume.

Daily Mail quoted Kempler as saying, “Further research is needed to evaluate the long-term risk of cumulative recreational noise exposures.”

“It is crucial that manufacturers and legislators are supportive of these plans and work together to protect the hearing of a generation of music lovers,” added Kempler.

The research appears in the journal Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.