The emerging iconic headset, the gadget plaintiffs’ lawyers claim is key to minimizing health risks from mobile phones and that state lawmakers champion as the silver-bullet cure for cell-phone-yakking drivers, is suddenly the suspected culprit behind hearing troubles of teenagers and adults so fond of portable electronic devices.
A poll underwritten by the American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association and conducted by Zogby International found more than half of high-school students surveyed reported at least one symptom of hearing loss.
The poll, among other things, focused on usage habits of high-school students and adults who use earbuds or earphones with iPods and MP3 players, portable CD and DVD/TV players, laptop computers and cell phones.
For the moment, health specialists are mostly focused on small devices capable of blasting hours of music directly into the ear. Yes, there’s a volume control. But everyone knows it only goes in one direction.
“Our poll tells us that we should take a close look at the potential impact of some popular technology on hearing health,” said ASHA President Alex Johnson.
“Louder and longer is definitely not the way to use these products,” said Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, ASHA’s chief staff officer for science and research.
“As someone who has spent much of my time in Congress promoting technological innovation and increased consumer choices, I see the innovation explosion in portable listening technology as a very positive development,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) “But hearing loss caused by overuse of this technology could give this success story a major and entirely preventable black eye, so it is critically important that we work to determine the exact nature of the risk users of this technology face, as well as the best ways that consumers can protect themselves.”
ASHA’s Johnson said public education would go a long way to improving the situation. Perhaps so would more research.
Markey recently wrote the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health to get more answers on what the apparently limited body of research says on the subject.
But while health experts and lawmaker seem to regard electronic assaults to the ear largely as an iPod problem, trend lines possibly point in a different direction. Consider this: Technological convergence is squeezing digitized music , video and lots more into small mobile phones. And this: The Zogby poll found that of all electronic devices used by teens and adults, cell phones were most prevalent.
The next round of headset lawsuits could have a much different look than those currently entangling the mobile-phone industry. Indeed, it’s probably just a matter of time before plaintiffs’ lawyers again sound off.
