The enduring adverse effects on hearing caused by too frequent and too loud use of MP3 players can be attributed to the damage of sensory hair cells in the cochlea. These tiny sensory hairs give electric impulses to the hearing center in the brain, which are perceived as sound. The ENT specialist Roland Schuderer explained the damaging effect of the noise exposure on the inner ear as such: "Imagine a corn field. In a light breeze the stalks are only bent, in a storm they are broken."

For years now the costs resulting from overly loud noise exposure have been increasing. Whereas most hearing damage used to be caused by frequenting discos, today it is increasingly attributed to MP3 players. However, we do not understand the precise picture yet, as exact data on user behavior and loudness selection are not known.
What is certain, however, is that in the past six years, health insurance company expenses for hearing devices for children and young people has risen by 30 percent. According to the estimate of the Federal Center for Health Education, approximately one quarter of all 16 to 24 year olds suffer from hearing damage.

As the worrying trend continues to persist an audiologist has even predicted that one third of young people today will need a hearing aid by the time they turn 50.

Written by Anno Bachem