Cleveland Clinic Audiologist Warns Great Lakes Geek about iPods and Other MP3 Players

While iPods and other MP3 players are a great convenience and a useful/entertaining tool, with improper use they can cause serious damage to your hearing. Cleveland Clinic Audiologist Dr Craig Newman explains, in a podcast interview with the Great Lakes Geek, what the dangers are and how to prevent them using his 60/60 rule of thumb.

While iPods and other MP3 players are a great convenience and a useful/entertaining tool, with improper use they can cause serious damage to your hearing.

With their growing popularity, (is it a part of the uniform for teenagers and twenty-somethings to have an iPod or other MP3 player attached to their ears?) the potential for a generation of hearing impaired people is possible.

Dr. Craig Newman is Section Head of Audiology at the Cleveland Clinic and is a world-renown expert in Hearing issues. Along with numerous publications, Dr Newman is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and was awarded the Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology in 2004. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Audiology.

In an audio interview on the GreatLakesGeek Show, Dr. Newman warns about the possible damage to hearing from too much volume and/or too long listening times to iPods and other MP3 players.

The ear pieces in such players, called earbuds, are placed directly in the ears of the user so the potential for hearing damage is increased.

Dr Newman offers his 60/60 rule to help prevent ear damage and hearing loss. As he points out, there is no cure for such damage to the ears. A hearing aid may be used to manage the loss but at present there are no cures for the damage. So prevention is crucial.

The Great Lakes Geek is the nom de plume of Tech Guru Dan Hanson, also known as the Entreprenerd for his business and tech adventures. The GreatLakesGeek website offers audio (podcast) shows on topics of interest to business and technology professionals.

All very good points there ... guitarist Jeff Beck reported hearing loss and bad tinnitus through years of loud music, both live and on portable gear like Walkmans. Ironically he later said he had to use an mp3 player, but only to play broadband 'swish' noises to mask the tinnitus.

Jim

There is no question that using these types of audio devices causes hearing loss.  I used one during a trip to California,and after I got off the plane my ears were ringing.  What do most Doctors recommend when it comes to the amount of time you can safely listen to an MP3 player without any hearing damage?

I love my MP3 player.  I already wear hearing aids, I try to be careful still.  The days of turning up the music to a loud level are well behind me.  I even had custom earmolds made that my earbuds snap into.  Makes hearing the music soo much cleaner with out the ambient and background noise.