A number of recent articles in the media suggest that youth are not recognizing the daily threats to their ears. They regularly attend literally deafening shows and even quiet moments are plugged-in with personal CD and MP3 players.

If you've never worn earplugs, consider the following: The human ear detects sounds in the range of 0 to 180 decibels (dB). The average rock show pummels your eardrum at 115 dB or more, as do sandblasters. According to the American Hearing Research Foundation, the safe exposure limit at this intensity is only 15 minutes per day.
That's a pretty short concert.

In the April 2005 edition of the medical journal Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School researchers released a study on the awareness amongst youth of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). They found that of nearly 10,000 participants who answered a survey through MTV's web site, only eight per cent described hearing loss as "a very big problem". The dominant issue was alcohol/drug abuse at 50 per cent. Acne was rated at 18 per cent.

The results are troublesome, given the seriousness of hearing damage and its prevalence. The Harvard study noted that studies done as early as 1985 found that 40 per cent of study participants aged 16 to 25 had measurable hearing loss.
What many youth may not know is that NIHL is irreversible, cumulative and may affect more than just your ears. That is, there is no cure for damaged ears and exposure over time causes more and more damage. A person won't notice NIHL as it begins. It's when understanding speech becomes difficult that one may realize there's a significant problem.

Also, because NIHL may affect one's ability to understand speech, it is also associated with feelings of isolation and socialization problems.

Karen Efron, an audiologist at St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg says hearing loss "can in turn affect social and emotional well being". The same is true of related conditions like tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (extreme sensitivity to even moderately loud sounds).

The best prevention is education, which young people apparently aren't getting. Efron says she expects to see more young people coming in for hearing tests because of low awareness of the potential for NIHL. In the MTV survey, only nine per cent reported having any education about hearing in school.

Prevention comes in the form of earplugs and following the recommendations for reasonable noise exposure, information that is widely available on the Internet. Despite earplugs being available for purchase at most drugstores, the MTV survey suggests that many concertgoers aren't using them. Only 14 per cent of respondents reported ever using earplugs.

There is one group of young people, however, who have taken up the habit of wearing earplugs - the musicians.

Bob Turner is a Winnipeg audiologist who offers clients custom hearing protection. "The provision of custom hearing protection is most notable in the music industry," he says. He's seen a surge of interest over the past several years in musicians' earplugs, a special type of earplug that attenuates the dB level reaching the inner ear equally over a range of frequencies thus eliminating the distortion caused by typical disposable earplugs.

Turner says most musicians' earplugs he fits are for individuals aged 18-to-27. They've recognized the concern and are investing in custom protection. The special earplugs do cost, but buyers feel the price is small compared to the life-long value of protecting their hearing.

By Whitney Light