As teens and preteens plug in their earphones and crank up the volume,
“Can you hear me now?” threatens to become more than a commercial
catch phrase.
Experts say today's small music players pose
a big risk of hearing loss. One reason: The “earbuds” used with iPods and
other MP3 players fit into the ears, not over them. That makes the sound
more intense than old models. Their digital songs are distortion-free,
too. That invites kids to dial up the loudness with no loss of clarity.
Most portable music players can reach 120 decibels, louder than a lawn
mower or chain saw.
“These devices put out levels that
exceed 85 decibels, the maximum safe occupational exposure in an
eight-hour day,” says Dr. John McClay, a pediatric ear, nose and
throat specialist on the medical staff at Children’s and
associate professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at UT Southwestern.
“But many young kids and preteens listen anytime and all the
time.”
Such constant pounding by loud noise, he warns, can
cause permanent harm to the fragile hair cells of the inner ear. Because
it doesn't cause pain, he adds, the damage can sneak up on kids years
later. Even moderately loud noise can permanently damage the hair cells if
the noise continues over time. The hair cells help send sound information
to the brain; if they are damaged or destroyed, hearing loss results. The
hair cells don't recover or produce new hair cells to replace damaged
cells.
A more immediate risk involves so-called “iPod
oblivion.” Users tune out their surroundings so much that they risk
accidents or assaults.
Preventive steps
To lessen the odds of hearing
loss, Dr. McClay and other experts offer this advice:
- Don't allow a child younger than 12 to regularly use a portable
music player.
- Encourage your child to tune the player no higher than 60 percent of
the top volume, or a little over halfway on the dial. The volume should
be low enough to hear surrounding sounds and conversation.
- Have your child use earphones that sit on top of, not inside, the
ear.
- See a doctor if ringing or buzzing in the ears lasts more than a
day.
Also, limit the amount of time the player is used each
day, and count that time as part of the overall “media” time of computers,
video games and TV. This increasingly sedentary lifestyle of childhood is
also contributing to the obesity epidemic among
youngsters.
Parents can ask for hearing tests at their
child's routine doctor visits if concerned. And Dr. McClay has some more
advice for parents: “If you have to shout to be heard by your child, or
you can hear music from their headphones from across the room, there's a
reasonable likelihood that they are listening to a level that, over time,
could produce hearing loss. And it's important to realize that, unlike
hearing loss that comes with age and disease, noise-induced hearing loss
is entirely preventable.”
Resources
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication
Disorders
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Dangerous Decibels
