The WHO warns that some 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe use of personal audio devices, including smartphones
1 billion teenagers and young adults are at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe use of personal audio devices, including smartphones, and exposure to damaging levels of sound at nightclubs, bars and sporting eve-nts, the WHO has warned.
The World Health Organisation also recommends that people should use personal audio devices for no more than one hour a day. Data from studies in middle and high-income countries indicate that among teena-gers and young adults aged 12-35 years, nearly 50 per cent are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal audio devices and around 40 per cent are exposed to potentially damaging levels of sound at entertainment venues. Unsafe levels of sounds can be, for example, exposure to in excess of 85 decibels for eight hours or 100 dB for 15 minutes.
“As they go about their daily lives doing what they enjoy, more and more young people are placing themselves at risk of hearing loss,” said Dr Etienne Krug, WHO director for the department for management of non-communicable diseases, disability, violence and injury prevention.
Many patrons of nightclubs, bars and sporting events are often exposed to even higher levels of sound, and should therefore considerably reduce the duration of exposure. Teenagers and young people can better protect their hearing by keeping the volume down on personal audio devices, wearing earplugs when visiting noisy venues, and using carefully fitted, and, if possible, noise-cancell-ing earphones. They can also limit the time spent engaged in noisy activities by taking short listening breaks and restricting the daily use of personal audio devices to less than one hour. With the help of smartphone apps, they can monitor safe listening levels.
Source | Asian Age | 2 March 2015
