The World Health Organization has warned that 1.1 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss because of portable digital music players and damaging levels of sound in the entertainment venues such as electronic dance music festivals where sound levels can top up to 120 decibels for hours. It is growing as a major public health challenge in terms of hearing difficulties.
Most of the teenagers have the risky habit of jamming the earbuds deeply into their ears and listening to loud music. Medical experts say these habits may lead to permanent hearing loss.
According to the National Institute of Health, repeated exposure to sound levels over 45 decibels can cause hearing loss and permanent damage can occur almost immediately after hearing. This is because the loud noise makes damage to the auditory nerves which carry electrical impulses to uthe ear.Ones damage is done to those nerves, it is permenant and irreversible. The risk of hearing is associated with the loudness of the noice and the duration of exposure.
A new study finds that, nearly 30% of teengers experience a condition called tinnitus which is a neurological and audiological disorder in the ear.Hearing specilists blame smartphones for this hering crisis among teens andyoung people and according to them the listening habits of todays teens can cause chronic tinnitus and permanant hearing loss later on.
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What is Tinnitus
Tinnitus is a condition of the ear that one feels like hearing strange sounds even when any external sounds are present. Mostly it may sound like ringing in the ear, but also like bussing, humming, grinding hissing or whistling. Somepeople with tinnitus may experience hearing sounds like music. This condition adversely affects a person’s quality of life including his/her personal, social and work life.
Tinnitus can affect people of all ages, the number of teenagers and young people having tinitus are increasing in a manner that something has to be done against this social health hazard.
“Make Listening Safe” initiative by WHO
To mark International Ear Care Day, celebrated each year on March 3rd, WHO is launching the “Make Listening Safe” initiative [Source] to draw attention to the dangers of unsafe listening and promote safer practices. In collaboration with partners worldwide, WHO will alert young people and their families about the risks of noise-induced hearing loss and advocate towards governments for greater attention to this issue as part of their broader efforts to prevent hearing loss.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/ear-care/en/