Average iPod use could be causing deafness.

Yesterday, FoxNews.com reported that many of our young people may be risking deafness thanks to their iPod usage. Sadly, such reports are hardly anything new. Strollerderby ran a similar story which linked hearing loss to iPods a couple of months ago. But this latest one seems to paint an even more dire picture than before.

Hearing expert Peter Rabinowitz, a professor at Yale University, says that nearly 75% of people under the age of 30 play their iPods at 85 decibels or above. But given the fact many iPod users have headphones which fit inside the listener’s ears, that decibel level may even be higher — like closer to 120, which is the same volume level a jet engine emits during takeoff. Continue reading »

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Mosquito ringtones only adults can hear

We lose the extreme high range of our hearing as we age. There’s not a lot going on in the high frequencies that we need to worry about: it’s the realm of mosquitos and dog whistles.

And teenagers.

Several years ago, a security company in Wales built a device to drive away loitering teens outside convenience stores. The machine blasted an annoying high-pitched noise that teens and children could hear, but most adults can’t.

Teenagers, being teenagers, recorded the noise and began using it as a ringtone so they could secretly text each other in class without alerting their teachers.

I’ve been amused and fascinated by this for years. And I’ve always wondered: have I really lost the high-end of my hearing? Can my kids hear noises I can’t?

Yes.

Today a friend passed along the Mosquito Ringtone website, where you can test your hearing against a variety of high-pitched sounds. Talk about an annoying way to satisfy your curiosity.

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While it’s normal to begin experiencing noticeable hearing loss around the age of 50 or 60, there’s a whole bunch of teens out there who will likely be dealing with that issue at a much earlier age.

According to new research, as many as one in five teens are already experiencing some degree of hearing loss.  And because hearing loss is cumulative, many of these kids might well be wearing hearing aids by the time they are 40. Continue reading »

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It’s one of the first tests a newborn baby gets — the newborn hearing screening.  According to the New York Times, 97 percent of babies born in the U.S. get the screening, but nearly half of those who fail it don’t get a follow-up.

In a perfect world, the system is supposed to work like this:  Everyone gets screened by one month, babies who fail that screening get a follow-up to diagnose the problem by three months, which means that babies with hearing issues are in treatment by six months.   Early intervention can help to prevent or mitigate some of the speech and language issues associated with hearing loss.

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Here’s an exciting worry for parents who may have been starting to relax about safety hazards: your kid’s hearing. Although they’re prodigious noisemakers themselves, babies are extra-sensitive to loud noises and repeated early exposure to loud noise can cause permanent hearing loss.

Our world is full of too much sound: concerts, sports events, fireworks displays, subway cars. The list goes on and on. Very loud noises damage our hearing, and this kind of hearing loss is both cumulative and irreversible. Continue reading »

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It wasn’t Dave Matthews cursing that bugged me. It wasn’t even the three-and-a-half-year-old in the next row listening to Dave Matthews curse that bugged me.

It was listening to said three-and-a-half-year-old’s mom tell the woman beside me “oh yeah, and I have a one-year-old at home!” So you had a babysitter and you chose to drag your toddler to a late night rock show? Are you kidding me? Continue reading »

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