According to the United Nations and the World Health Organization, more than 900 million people will suffer from hearing loss by 2050.
Announcing new guidelines to address the problem in a recent report, it has been revealed that more than a billion 12-to-35-year-olds face the risk of irreversible hearing loss, which health experts blame on prolonged exposure to loud sounds including music played on smartphones.
“Over a billion young people are at risk of hearing loss simply by doing what they really enjoy doing a lot, which is listening regularly to music through their headphones over their devices,” said Dr Shelly Chadha, a WHO technical officer working on preventing deafness and hearing loss.
“At the moment, we don’t really have anything solid other than our instinct to tell us: are we doing this right, or is this something that is going to lead to tinnitus and hearing loss a few years down the line?”
Data shows 50% of young people now listen to ‘unsafe levels’ of sound through personal audio devices.
Recommendations to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, and related conditions such as tinnitus, include better functions on personal audio devices that monitor how loud, and for how long, people listen to music.
Further suggestions for devices include automatic volume reduction: When someone goes over the limit, devices would automatically reduce the volume to a level that wouldn’t harm their ears.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General at the WHO, concluded:
“Given that we have the technological know-how to prevent hearing loss, it should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music.
“They must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back.”
