Photo credit: thekirbster licensed under CC BY 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This article in The New York Times describes how Juul hooked a generation on nicotine, while regulators slept. Now millions are addicted and hundreds have died from vaping.
The Walkman was first marketed in 1979, followed by the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and a host of similar devices shortly thereafter. Very effective advertising convinced people–young people especially–that they needed a constant sound track in their lives. Now people use their personal listening devices about 5 hours a day, often at high volumes.
Have electronics manufacturers hooked a generation–or two–on a constant stream of loud sound? Will the result be an epidemic of noise-induced hearing loss when today’s young people reach mid-life?
I hope someone will remember this warning if I’m not around. But if I am around, I will have no pleasure in saying “I told you so” to the millions of Americans coping with hearing loss. We still have time to prevent today’s teenagers from suffering untreatable noise-induced hearing loss, but we have to act now.
