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Ipods and Hearing Loss

When I looked at my mail today, the latest print issue of Advance for Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists screamed out at me. The cover story was titled, iPods, Earphones & Hearing Loss: Audiologists set the record straight . I have sort of been ignoring the nagging voice inside my head that reminded me of all the audiology courses I took in undergrad. The voice that told me to lower my iPod because those tiny hair cells in my inner ear were probably dying (never to be replenished). This article made some good points about the issue. Here is an excerpt.

A lot of the MP3 player controversy can be resolved with common sense and, above all, patient education, noted Rachel Cruz, MA, CCC-A, FAAA, a research audiologist at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, CA.

"It's about what you expose yourself to," she said. "Everyone knows that these things are loud, and loud sounds are bad for you. There are very few people who don't get it. In terms of the iPod and noise-induced hearing loss, I don't know that the iPod has been around long enough that a person could have clinically definable noise-induced hearing loss."

She likened the current controversy to similar public concern over the introduction of the Sony Walkman in the late 1970s and its potential threat to hearing health.

"A person could certainly, with any kind of personal listening device, give themselves acoustic trauma and acquire high-frequency hearing loss over a long period of time," she stated. "It concerns me that a particular device is being singled out. It's obviously not an issue unique to a single piece of equipment. The users should be made aware of any potential risks for hearing loss and how their behavior influences their risk level. Then they can make an educated decision on the appropriate 'noise dosage' they allow themselves."

Cruz does not dismiss the potential risk of hearing damage but urged reliance on clinical research, particularly in the area of user behavior.

"The risk depends on a lot of things, and duration of exposure is a big factor. I don't know that people are listening five, six, seven hours a day at 100 dB SPL with these devices," she said. "I'm leery about jumping on a bandwagon where people get very up in arms over the device of the year because next year it may be something else."

The nature of the acoustics of the ear dictate, in part, that in-the-ear earphones are capable of generating higher sound levels, Dr. Fligor noted. However, that does not mean people choose to listen at those higher levels.

I like the last paragraph in the article:

Cruz agreed. "Professionally, to me it's more important to educate people about what kinds of sounds put them at risk and what kinds put them in more of a 'safe zone' and let them decide. People are smart. We should encourage our patients to make healthy decisions and monitor their recreational sound exposure. The best way to do this is by providing accurate information about hearing loss."

OK, so to sum up. Yes, prolonged exposure to a very loud noise level (like 100 dB SPL for example) with the in the ear-buds can't be good. What will I do about this? I will probably go out and try to find a reasonably priced, comfortable practical set of headphones and I will keep an eye on the volume of the iPod. Maybe I should have taken a pre-iPod hearing test and one in a year. Oh well. Too late.

Posted by peninah at February 15, 2006 07:03 PM | TrackBack