Youth
Protect your hearing and turn down the volume
Damage to hearing can come from exposure to excessive noise levels during recreational activities, such as rock concerts and discos, shooting, motor racing, listening to personal music players, and even some films shown in the cinema. This damage is a real threat to a young person’s long term hearing health.
Warnings about the dangers of excessive noise exposure
Research suggests that young people are resisting repeated warnings from audiologists, hearing associations, and published reports to 'turn down the volume' on their personal music players and protect their gift of hearing for the long term.
Audiologists across the country are seeing a swell in hearing loss cases and are treating increasing numbers of young adults and teens for noise-induced hearing damage.
MP3 users are ignoring warnings that loud and prolonged exposure will give them permanent hearing damage.
“In the last 6 months I have seen noise related hearing loss in 2 eight-year-old children from using personal music devices” (Audiologist Tasmania)
With nearly 150 million personal music players on the market - and sales continuing to climb - hearing loss will become as prolific as these devices.
How the damage happens
Frequent and extended exposure to sound pressure in excess of 85 decibels can cause long term hearing loss. Many MP3 users listen at much higher levels - often without realising the risk. Some personal music players can reach more than 115 decibels, representing significant potential for damage in a matter of minutes.
Hearing Link's Test and Protect Program
Our 'Test and Protect Program' through our school visits showed us that teenagers seem to know that loud music can damage their hearing, yet most see no reason to lower the volume of their MP3 players.
Conducting our program with students at two high schools showed us that teens were generally aware that blasting an MP3 player could harm their hearing. Yet most said they usually played their own device at maximum volume and had no plans to change that. Like many teenagers, the students often denied their own personal risk. Most knew the general hazards of loud music, but believed they had a low personal vulnerability to hearing loss.
Recreational activities such as shooting, drag racing and working with machines like chainsaws can also lead to hearing loss.
Our hearing screenings conducted at schools show that over 70% of students tested had results that were consistent with the beginnings of hearing loss due to noise damage.
The aim of our program is to educate students and teachers about how hearing loss happens. We do this through:
- conducting hearing screenings
- education sessions that focus on practical and experiential exposure to the effects of hearing loss
- giving tips to know potential danger signals
- providing advice on hearing protection and how and when to use it
- providing a pack containing written information.
More information
To find out more about youth hearing loss contact us.
You can also view our information sheet on Musician Ear Plugs (PDF 501KB).
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