1 in 5 US teenagers has slight hearing loss

According to a new study, one in five teens (i.e 6.5 million teens) has a slight hearing loss, and the problem has increased substantially in recent years. the AP reports.

Most of the hearing loss was "slight," defined as inability to hear at 16 to 24 decibels — or sounds such as a whisper or rustling leaves.

Some young people turn their digital players up to levels that would exceed federal workplace exposure limits, said Brian Fligor, an audiologist at Children's Hospital Boston. In Fligor's own study of about 200 New York college students, more than half listened to music at 85 decibels or louder. That's about as loud as a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner.

Habitual listening at those levels can turn microscopic hair cells in the inner ear into scar tissue.

Read full article.

emily | 11:34 AM | News, Buzz, Random Stats |
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