News

Teenagers may be more likely than adults to crank up their portable music players, but adults are also risking damage to their ears by listening to the devices, according to a new study released Tuesday.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association commissioned the report by Zogby International, which found some disturbing trends in the use of portable listening devices and how they relate to potential hearing loss. With roughly 61 per cent of teens and 23 per cent of adults surveyed saying they have an iPod or MP3 player, the ubiquity of the devices is creating some potential dangers for users.

More than half of high school students surveyed who regularly listened a portable music player said they experienced at least one of four symptoms commonly associated with hearing loss.

They were also more likely than adults to say that they experienced three of the four symptoms: like having to turn the volume up on their TV or radio, asking people to repeat themselves during normal conversation, and having tinnitus or ringing in their ears.

There is no indication that the devices were directly responsible for these symptoms, but the researchers said they were "disturbed" by the fact that only 49 per cent of high schoolers who use the devices said they have not experienced any of the symptoms, compared to 63 per cent of adults who said the same.

Roughly the same percentage of teenagers and adults surveyed (40 per cent) said they listened to the devices at a loud volume setting. But teens were nearly twice as likely as adults to play them "very loud" (13 per cent compared to 6 per cent).

And while blasting music into your ears at high decibel levels is certainly more likely to have a detrimental effect, according to the survey, adults were more likely to put themselves at risk by listening to the devices for longer periods of time. Roughly 43 per cent of adults said they listened to the their iPod or MP3 player between one and four hours a day or longer (9 per cent), compared to less than a third of those teens surveyed.

The researchers speculate that the additional time adults spend listening to the device comes as result of longer commutes.

"Louder and longer is definitely not the way to use these devices," Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, chief staff officer for science and research at ASHA, said in the report. "Eventually, that becomes a recipe for noise-induced hearing loss, which is permanent."

An almost equal percentage of adults (48 per cent) and teens (47 per cent) said they are not concerned about hearing loss from use of these products, while teens (53 per cent) are much more likely than adults (33 per cent) to say they are concerned.

The survey also found that while a majority of parents are concerned about hearing loss in their children because of these devices, less than half are willing to limit the amount of time their children use them. About 80 per cent did say, however, they would likely tell their children to turn down the volume.

The telephone survey was conducted on 1000 adults, and 301 high school students.

ASHA is urging listeners to take measures to combat unnecessary risk to their hearing, by turning down the volume, listening for less time, and by using special earphones that reduce the level ambient sound that would usually lead to people cranking up the volume.