Fewer baby boomers have hearing loss
Fewer baby boomers are experiencing hearing loss, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who herself was warned about listening to loud music earlier in life.
“I’m less likely to have a hearing loss when I get to be 70 years old than my grandmother did when she was 70,” said UW researcher Karen Cruickshanks, the author of the study, in a news article.
Overall, boomers have 31 percent less hearing loss than their parents’ generation.
The experts aren’t certain why older Americans have better hearing compared with earlier generations, but they theorize that there are fewer very noisy jobs and better ear protection at worksites, immunizations and antibiotics that prevented certain diseases, and maybe even a decline in smoking.
Cruickshanks said that the earbuds worn day in and day out by today’s young people is chronic exposure that could prove more hazardous than the briefer loud exposures that baby boomers had.
According to HearingLossWeb.com, “Most people lose their hearing slowly — over a 15- to 20-year period — because regular and repeated noise exposure damages the wonderfully complicated and intricate hair cells of the inner ear that interpret sound vibrations as words, music or other sounds.”
The resource advises individuals to wear earplugs while exposed to loud noises — such as the lawnmower — and to use headphones responsibly. If someone else can hear the music, it’s too loud.
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