A campaign is under way to stop young people developing tinnitus. Nick Moore reports
Deaf by rock music
Deafness is usually associated with the elderly - grandma twiddling with her hearing aid, bellowing at everyone to speak up. Yet recent reports show that more and more sufferers are young. Most are victims of incredible noise levels in clubs, concert halls, pubs, cinemas and even restaurants.
As a drummer who has been battering snare drums and crash cymbals since the age of 15, I realise it was no coincidence that I developed tinnitus. When I played I would continue to hear high-frequency cymbal sounds for a couple of hours afterwards. This was compounded by attending live concerts; by the time I was 17 the ringing was permanent.
The link between extreme noise and hearing loss is not new. Problems experienced by war veterans exposed to gunfire and people who operate heavy machinery have been well documented. The concern now, says the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), is that the problem has spread to people out to enjoy themselves.
"Society is getting louder and people are suffering as a result," says Mark Anderson, BTA's project manager, who suffers from tinnitus. "I went to an extremely loud gig and stood right by the speakers. Immediately afterwards I went deaf in one ear for 12 hours. I was terrified." His hearing did return, but the ringing in his ears never went away.
The effects of damage through noise exposure is cumulative: the more you expose yourself to loud noise, the more you risk losing your hearing earlier than one would expect. Research from Australia suggests that today's 10 to 15-year-olds will start to lose their hearing 30 years sooner than their parents, and that the use of personal stereos makes them much more prone to tinnitus.
The condition takes many forms. In Mr Anderson's case it is a constant whistling, "like a kettle", but can vary from an internal shrieking or hissing to a noise akin to the roar of a jet. It can cause sleep loss and hamper mental functions. It can lead to depression - sufferers have even been known to commit suicide. Stress and tiredness exacerbate the ringing, which in turn increases stress, creating a vicious circle. Tinnitus can also develop into hyperacusis, a severe sensitivity to noise. Sufferers have an almost phobic aversion to volume, with a range of sensitivity that can lead them to become irritated by something as mundane as a cup being placed on a saucer.
Four million people now suffer from tinnitus, says the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, which is concerned at the number of young people contacting its helpline.
Figures from the charity Defeating Deafness show that while the legal limit for volumes at work is 90 decibels, clubs regularly reach 125 decibels. The drug Ecstasy has been implicated in the problem as it fuels the need to dance to loud music. The excess volume kills hairs in the inner ear that never grow back. Clubbers are "hastening the natural ageing of their ears and are much more likely to need hearing aids at an earlier age than their parents' generation", says the report.
But the problem is not limited to clubs. Everywhere things are becoming louder, from cinemas through to restaurants. Val Rose, BTA's operations manager, says: "I have known waiters stoop down to take orders in restaurants because the music was so loud."
The main problem for organisations fighting dangerous volume levels is that they are hard to police. There are laws about safe noise levels in the workplace but in the leisure industry levels need be lowered only if people complain. Someone legally obliged to wear headphones in a noisy factory can dance all night to music nearly twice as loud.
"We want to get across the message 'Don't turn it off, turn it down'," says Mr Anderson. "You don't realise you are damaged until it's too late. Young people don't want to know about potential dangers, and complaining about volume levels is not a cool thing to do."
The key, he says, is awareness. The Musicians' Union and the British Performing Artists Medical Trust have run campaigns to raise public awareness, and the music and club press increasingly report on the issue. Support has come from the likes of Pete Townshend and Phil Collins, both of whom have had tinnitus. The British Standards Institution is looking into claims that personal stereos cause permanent hearing damage and tinnitus.
Still, the problem remains misunderstood. "People with tinnitus often do not understand the problem's relation to noise levels," says Val Rose. "Excess volume may be an annoyance - it might mean we can't sustain a conversation in a pub - but it has not yet pushed people to ask whether it needs to be that loud."
Yet clubbers maintain a macho, play-it-until-your-ears-bleed attitude - which could be good news for makers of hearing aids in 20 years' time.
British Tinnitus Association: 0800 0180527; RNID tinnitus helpline: 0870-605 0123, Monday to Friday, 10am-3pm
July 13 1999 © Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. http://www.the-times.co.uk
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