Photo credit: cottonbro studio
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Are noise-cancelling headphones to blame for young people’s hearing problems? That’s the headline of a recent BBC article. The BBC reports that five audiology departments have reported an increase in referrals for young people with hearing difficulties, only to find that their audiograms are normal. One young woman said she could hear what was being said, but the words sounded like gibberish.
She might have auditory processing disorder (APD). People with this poorly-understood condition have difficulty processing the sounds they hear. As one audiologist noted: “There is a difference between hearing and listening. We can see that listening skills are suffering.” According to the article, an increasing number of young people in the United Kingdom are using noise-cancelling headphones for a few to several hours a day. The British audiologists are wondering if this might be the cause of the increased number of young people with possible APD.
Diagnosis of APD takes much longer than doing a screening audiogram for hearing loss, and most British audiologists state that they do not have the skills needed to treat APD. Only one in the entire country offers a full APD assessment, and the waiting list for an appointment is currently nine months long.
I use noise-cancelling headphones, but almost exclusively for air travel. I find that aircraft cabin noise is uncomfortable for me. The low-frequency jet engine noise is almost painful for my ears. That’s because I have hyperacusis, a sensitivity to noise that doesn’t bother others. The rest of the time — when using noisy appliances, power tools or when hammering just one nail — I use earplugs or earmuff hearing protection.
Some noises are unavoidable. It’s impossible to hammer in that one nail or to use a circular saw without making noise. But other noise sources can be made quieter. There’s no reason for restaurants and bars to be as noisy as they are. The subways in London can be made quieter with better rail maintenance, use of rubber ties rather than wood or metal ones and closing off the platforms with glass doors.
That way, young people in the United Kingdom won’t have to use noise-cancelling headphones to avoid noise-induced hearing loss. A quieter world will be a better and healthier world for all.
