Photo credit: Matheus Bertelli from Pexels
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This review of David Owen’s book “Volume Control” from Canada’s National Post discusses the fact that hearing loss is not part of normal aging. Rather, most of it is the result of exposure to too much noise.
I agree with Mr. Owen, and with the reviewer.
My analysis of the medical and scientific literature, presented at the 12th Congress of the International Commission on the Effects of Noise, concluded that good hearing should last into old age. Unfortunately, modern life has become too noisy, with most Americans getting too much noise exposure in daily life.
Sadly, with noise exposure continuing unabated, I predict–and have predicted before–that hearing loss will become common in mid-life, not in old age, when today’s young people show the effects of hours of listening to personal music players at high volume.
