More Than 1 Billion Teens and Young Adults Risk Hearing Loss
It may be too loud even if you’re not old. A new study suggests that up to 1.35 billion people in their teens, twenties, and early thirties risk hearing loss long before they reach retirement age because they spend too much time exposed to loud noises.“We focused on unsafe listening from use of personal listening devices such as smartphones and loud entertainment venues such as bars, concerts, and nightclubs, both of which are highly common in young people,” says the lead study author, Lauren Dillard, PhD, a doctor of audiology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.For the new analysis, scientists examined data on average noise exposure among more than 19,000 people ages 12 to 34 who participated in 33 previously conducted studies. Overall, roughly one in four people…