"We're starting to see hearing loss in young adults that we expect to diagnose in middle-aged adults. This loss is often self-induced and may be related to young people's exposure to amplified sound and use of personal listening systems, such as cell phones and portable music devices, that students seem to be always using. The damage can be temporary or permanent," lead researcher Robert Novak said.

"People, especially young adults on a college campus, have something in their ears almost all the time as they walk from class, visit the library, work in the computer lab, drive in their cars and rest in their apartments. Their ears have very little quiet time to recover from noise exposure. Often, listeners play music too loudly to drown out the background noise in these environments. A healthier alternative is to find a truly quiet place to study and minimize the use of headphones coupled directly to the ear," he added.

From Asian News International