Turn Down For What? Your Ears
My headphones are my lifeline. I don’t go anywhere without them. Uncoiling their tangles is a welcome, if annoying, routine. They’re a friend I can conjure at a moment’s notice. The sounds that emerge from their white wires provide relief, comfort, confidence, serenity… maybe even a dance party.
But all good things must come in moderation. We millennials might be getting too attached to our headphones, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is worried.
“Among teenagers and young adults aged 12 to 35 years, nearly 50 percent are exposed to unsafe levels of sound from the use of personal audio devices, and around 40 percent are exposed to potentially damaging levels of sound at entertainment venues,’’ the organization said in a release about research last month.
Loud noise can damage the hair cells (called stereocillia) in our inner ears. Such hearing loss is permanent, and humans have no way to restore these hair cells.
To avoid irrevocable harm to our ears, Lisa Shatz, an associate professor of engineering at Suffolk University, urges headphone users to listen to no more than 60 percent of the maximum volume on their devices, for no more than 60 minutes per day.
“It’s so prevalent for older adults to experience hearing loss, so you don’t want to put yourself at risk for that happening by listening for too long, too loudly, on your headphones,’’ she said.
Changing your headphones won’t help either, said Dr. Ackland Jones, a senior audiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
“It’s not so much an issue of what headphones you are using, but really the factors are how loud you are listening to them and how long you are listening to them: Those two things combine to create the resulting exposure that you’re getting,’’ he said.
And it’s not just our music listening habits that will contribute to hearing loss, Dr. Jones said. You might encounter potentially damaging sounds in any given day, and for other noisy activties, he recommends using earplugs or ear muffs.
“The effects of loud noise can be compounded. Music is one source, but there are many more sources out there,’’ he said. “You listen to your iPod, then you go home and mow the lawn, and do other activities that are loud, or ride a motorcycle or something—all of those things can add up to what happens.’’
The extent of the damagealso depends on how you are listening. Background noise-canceling headphones are the best for listening, Shatz said, because we might not be so inclined to raise the volume in order to drown out other sounds. On the other hand, we might need to hear background noise while in public, for safety’s sake.
Dr. Jones and WHO recommend limiting noise exposure to 85 decibels on average over an eight-hour period. Those beats at the club or at that party last weekend are probably around 100 decibels, which you should be exposed to for no more than 15 minutes.
So, the next time you turn it up, consider what you could be turning it down for.
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