Newsletter (2)
Turning the volume up too high on your headphones can damage the coating of the nerve cells in the ear, leading to temporary hearing loss, a study has found.
When using headphones, personal music players can subject listeners to noise levels similar to those of jet engines. Noise levels exceeding 110dB are known to cause hearing problems such as temporary hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). But for the first time the underlying cell damage has been observed.
Tens of millions of Europeans suffer from a hearing impairment of some degree. They range from the one child in 1,000 who is born deaf, to the many whose hearing is declining as they grow older.
The EU-funded project EUROHEAR ('Advances in hearing science: from functional genomics to therapies') set out to expand medical understanding of hearing loss and treatment.
