Hearing Loss

iPods Beat the Eardrum Senseless
By Sania Mathakutha
Staff Writer

“Huh? What? What did you say?” Maybe your kids can’t hear you after all. Unless you have been trapped under a polar bear in the Yukon for the past four years, you’ve probably noticed the iPod insurgency in America. One can hardly walk ten feet on campus without spotting a dozen POD People. But recent concerns over hearing damage could force chronic iPod users to unplug and take notice.

According to the Center for Hearing Health, there are three basic types of hearing loss:

1.Conductive Hearing Loss- Conductive Hearing Loss is when the outer or middle ear is disturbed, causing the inner ear unable to receive sound.

2.Sensorineural Hearing Loss- Sinsorineural Hearing Loss is when the nerves of the inner ear are damaged and no proper signals are sent to the brain.

3.Mixed Hearing Loss- If the hearing loss is caused by both the sensorineural and conductive components, it is known as Mixed Hearing Loss.

When asked if she knew that listening to an iPod at high volume could be damaging her hearing, Seyissa Maule, a student at HCC said, “I will keep listening, probably turn it down more.” People often use headphones on trains and buses while commuting, walking through a city or college and in airplanes. They might have the volume on too loud just because they want to drown out the noise around them not noticing the damage they might be putting on the inner ear and risking hearing loss. Our culture likes a big sound. The louder our Hip Hop music is the better we think we are going to “feel” the music. It comes at a cost though, legendary guitarist Eric Clapton told the Britain’s Express newspaper that he suffers from mild tinnitus and thinks his excessively loud performances with Cream back in the 60s is to blame. He said, “My hearing isn’t ruined, but if I stop and listen I’ve got whistling all the time which I suppose is a mild tinnitus.”

Whether you front for a rock band filling stadiums with screaming fans or making music is your business, you might be at risk of going deaf without even knowing it because you are being bombarded by loud sounds. According to WebMD, hearing loss is a gradual process that may not be noticed for years. When it does happen people generally notice that speech is mumbled and unclear. People may report a ringing (or tinnitus) in their ear or head. By that time, the only thing that may help is a hearing aid. To protect your hearing you could spend less time in a very noisy environment, turn your television volume down, wear hearing protection at all times if you work in a noisy environment and cut down on the number of loud appliances running at the same time. Never stick cotton swabs or hairpins in your ears when trying to remove earwax. Stop smoking, if you smoke you are likely to have hearing loss.