"Now that I think of it, it's pretty bad," says DeZuzio, a music producer, recorder and owner of Paramus' Stained Glass Studios, who is typically performing or writing music with his band Interference when he's not behind a mixing board with speakers angled at his head.

While DeZuzio's job and hobbies put him at a higher risk for noise-related hearing loss, audiologists warn that most twenty- and thirtysomethings have reason to be concerned about their ears.

America is simply "a lot louder than it was a century ago," explains Pamela Mason of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, Md.

And prolonged exposure to sounds louder than 80 decibels - about the level of a busy New York street - has the potential to cause irreversible hearing loss, according to the New York-based League for the Hard of Hearing.

We are typically exposed to such potentially damaging sound levels from the moment our alarm clocks (about 80 decibels) go off beside our heads in the morning, Mason says.

"Noise is a pollution," she explains. "You can't see it, you can't touch it, so we have a tendency to ignore it.

"But loud background noise - lawnmowers, traffic sounds, planes flying overhead, the neighbor with the loud parties - can elevate blood pressure, increase the heart rate, cause digestion problems and just elevate general stress levels as well as, over time, potentially damage hearing."

Conversations about hearing loss typically focus on baby boomers, who increasingly face hearing impairments from age-related deterioration of sensitive inner ear systems and years of living in a loud environment.

But the outlook is not good for younger adults, either.

In addition to car stereos and street noise, twenty- and thirtysomethings often own portable audio devices such as MP3 players that are capable of pumping damaging sound levels directly into the ear canal.

A recent study by London's Royal National Institute for Deaf People found that 39 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds listen to personal stereos for at least an hour a day, and 42 percent of regular listeners believed their music was too loud.

"I prefer [the stereo] kind of loud so the music sends the energy through you and gets you going," said Davanna May, 20, as she relaxed between classes at Fairleigh Dickinson University's Teaneck campus. But sometimes, May admitted, "the volume is just excessive."

In 1998, the League for the Hard of Hearing and the City University of New York found the maximum output level of personal stereo systems was 112 decibels - nearly 30 decibels above safe levels for prolonged use.

Though listeners kept the devices at safe levels when in a quiet room, the study found many people turned up the sound to damaging volumes when walking, riding on the subway, exercising and doing other activities where background noise was already loud.

To block out background noise, music has to be loud. A busy street already generates 80 decibels - right at the bottom of the range considered potentially hazardous. Sound levels in health clubs and aerobic studios can be as high as 120 decibels, according to the League for the Hard of Hearing.

"I think we are all concerned about the iPods and the Walkmans because there you have the sound in the person's ear," says Dr. Maryrose McInerney, director of audiology at Hackensack University Medical Center. "So it may not seem that loud to you, but because it is right by the eardrum, it's loud."

She added: "I think that if you've got your Walkman in or your iPod in and somebody next to you is hearing it, then it is too loud."

With such a loud world, some twenty- and thirtysomethings have resigned themselves to getting hearing aids. Others say they will worry about their ears in another couple decades.

"I'm not old enough to worry about it," said Slava Koza, a 21-year-old senior at Fairleigh Dickinson. Yet Koza admitted that he often has ringing in his ears after concerts. Once, after standing too close to the speakers at an event, he "couldn't hear anything afterwards."

Experiences like that have caused others to take action. Classmate David Kamara said he is conscious of how loud he plays the stereo.

"I think about my hearing, though not as much as I should," Kamara said. "Every once in a while, you've got to turn the music down."

Noise levels

Prolonged exposure to sounds louder than 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. Here's the decibel level of common background sounds.

Quiet room: 20

Conversation: 60

Busy street: 70-80

Motorcycles: 95-120

Personal music players: up to 105-120

Movie theaters: up to 118

Live music concerts: more than 120, depending on distance from the speakers

Sporting events: 127

Gunshots: 150-167

Sources: the League for the Hard of Hearing; the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Sounds of silence

Some signs of hearing loss:

Speech is less clear.

You can't hear the television as well as you used to.

F's, S's and other hissing sounds become inaudible or soft.

Children and women, who have higher-pitched voices, are difficult to understand. The ability to understand higher pitches goes first.

You can't understand someone speaking near you when water is running.

Sustained ringing in the ears. (Note: Sometimes after exposure to loud noise, the ears will temporarily ring. The ears can recover. Audiologists recommend giving the ears a break after exposure to loud noise to help this recovery.)

Source: Dr. Maryrose McInerney, director of audiology at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Ways to combat hearing loss:

Pamela Mason of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association recommends that people encourage restaurant owners, movie projectionists and the like to turn down the volume when it seems to be at an unsafe level.

She also recommends that people indulge in quiet time after attending a loud concert, sporting event or other activity.

By Catherine Holahan