A Vanderbilt study done in collaboration with MTV.com says young people could face an “epidemic” of hearing loss, in part because of growing headphone use.
The research, in the current Journal of Pediatrics, follows up on another MTV survey from 2002.
Ninety percent of males over sixty now suffer from hearing loss, and Dr. Ron Eavey says that trend could worsen in the coming years if nothing changes.
“In fact people, if they’re listening to an MP3 player, this survey showed, will listen to it often at volumes greater than government industry regulations would permit for workers to prevent hearing loss.”
Eavey says that gets worse when people listen to music in already loud public places, like while riding a bus. Eavey gleaned his data from self-selecting survey of 2,500 visitors to MTV.com – mostly females in their teens and twenties.
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