GENTRY — Thinking back to my teen years, I clearly remember my dad complaining gruffly at times about the volume of the radio, usually followed with a threat to throw his shoe and break the thing if somebody didn’t “turn it down about forty notches.”
His orders were followed, at least until he was out of earshot, and he kept his shoes to himself. His bark was worse than his bite.
Not surprisingly, teenagers today still tend to prefer music louder than their parents would like, and the age-old conflict continues. However, with all the personal listening devices with headphones and earbuds that pump the sound directly into the ear, it is not as obvious sometimes just how loud the music is blaring. Today’s common practice of listening to music or other noise at too high a volume for too long is believed by many to be contributing to an alarming rise in hearingloss among today’s teenagers.
According to studies conducted in recent years, about one in five teens in America now exhibit some degree of hearing loss. Unfortunately, noise induced high frequency loss is permanent. Once the hearing mechanism is overused and fatigued in this manner, the damage cannot be reversed. To stop this epidemic, the focus must be on prevention, with awareness of the problem being a good place to start. What better time than May, the month designated by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association as “Better Speech and Hearing Month,” to help increase awareness of this threat to our youth.
A National Poll on Children’s Health conducted last fall found that many parents need more information. Two-thirds of parents of children between ages 12-17 reportedly had never discussed hearing loss with their teens, and a high number of those parents did not think their child was at risk.
It must be assumed that all children who utilize earphones and earbuds are at risk for hearing loss. Steps toward hearing conservation are fairly simple and should be utilized by anyone using these devices. Here are some of the suggestions made by professionals in the health fields:
1) When possible, use volume-limiting headphones or earbuds to keep volume down to saferdecibel levels.
2) Abide by the 60/60 rule. Use only 60 percent of the volume level of a device for no more than 60 minutes at a time.
3) After listening for an hour, remove headphones and rest the ears for a while.
4) If sound can be heard coming from the headphones of someone else, the volume is too loud.
5) Invest in good quality noise canceling headphones that cover the entire ear. Smaller earbuds may allow outside noise in, which causes the tendency to turn up the volume louder.
6) Wear ear plugs at concerts and other very noisy events. You will still hear plenty well enough to enjoy the music. Bandmembers often protect their hearing in this way.
With more teens in our country acquiring lifelong hearing loss in alarming numbers, more needs to be done to prevent this. It makes me feel old to tell a youngster to turn down the music, but it is for their benefit. My dad complained because the loud music irritated him, but clearly, in today’s world of noise-producing devices, there are more important reasons to “turn that thing down!”
Annette Rowe is a freelance writer from rural Gentry and a speech-language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School. She may be reached by email at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 6 on 05/09/2012