Earbuds Can Cause High Frequency Hearing Loss
Each generation has its own brand of music and its own way of listening to it. Over the years we have evolved through the record turntable, transistor radios, boom boxes and now the ubiquitous earbuds and headphones. The one thing that has remained constant from one generation to the next is the volume, where it has always been ‘the louder the better’.
The current ‘plugged-in’ generation can now tune out their parents, their teachers and even their friends for most of the day as they isolate themselves from the world. While this in itself poses significant social dangers, there is also a serious physical danger to be considered. One in six teenagers now has high frequency hearing loss due to listening to loud music through headphones.
As a result, the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that adolescents should be screened for hearing loss three times between the ages of 11 and 21 years. When using earbuds, the volume should be low enough to be able to hear conversations ‘out in the real world’ and others should not be able to hear any noise coming from the earbuds.