The World Health Organization introduced a report recently where they claim to find strong indications of a staggering number of 1 billion people running the risk of hearing loss, due to excessive exposure to “damaging levels” of sound.
An alarming figure indeed, but really no surprise when you take a look at the number of people now making constant use of personal music listening through gadgets like smartphones and tablets through high def headphones – and, more often than not, at a volume that is simply too high to maintain throughout your life.
The data in the report was gathered from both middle- and high-income countries. More than half of those in the age category of 12-35 years are exposed to an unsafe level of sound, which it time could be catastrophical for one’s hearing. An unsafe level of sound has been described by the WHO as: “exposure to in excess of 85 decibles [sic] (dB) for eight hours or 100dB for 15 minutes.”
And those of you reading this are of course no strangers to a nightclub. In the same demographic as mentioned above, 40% of people are running the risk of hearing loss because of excessive levels at clubs, concerts and bars. All in all, great chunks of people’s daily lives are being spent whilst while to music. In turn, this has led to this detrimental figure of 1 billion people, as everybody is more or less involved in it.
So what exactly is hearing loss? The WHO report explains “Exposure to loud sounds for any length of time causes fatigue of the ear’s sensory cells. When the exposure is particularly loud, regular or prolonged, it can cause permanent damage of the sensory cells and other structures, resulting in irreversible hearing loss.”
Not all is lost, though, as you can start preventive action as of now. Turn down the volume on your iPhone a couple of nudges, learn how equalizing the high and low frequencies in your music software can result in less fatigue of the ears after long listening periods, and, of course, buy hearing protection when you’re a frequent club and concert goer. We will return with an in-depth look on hearing loss, and what would be the best solution for your personal habits and behaviour.
A final bit of advise came from the WHO report, although it is probably a bit too draconian for most of us: “restricting the daily use of personal audio devices to less than one hour.” Would you be able to do this? Not me.
Source: Consequenceofsound.net