Hearing impairment a huge threat for Zim Youth

Walking around the streets of Harare depicts a high rate of mobile penetration especially among the youth who now have the luxury of taking a cell phone to school. Given the rise of cell phone users the health of the youth comes under scrutiny. A stroll around the city centre provides evidence of how several people especially the youth move around with earphones plugged into their ears as they listen to music.

Permanent damage results in hearing loss for the whole life time. Excessive volume levels for long periods of time can damage your hearing ability permanently according to health experts. The World Health Organization has set a standard that can be labeled harmful to your ears. Any sound or music that is above the limit of 85dB can be termed as harmful to ears. Even loud sounds can rupture your eardrum permanently.

Listening to music using headphones may not rupture your eardrum but it can cause nerve damage. Personal music players are among the chief culprits of NIHL among teens. Video games, television sets, movie theaters, traffic, and some machines and appliances can also make the environment too noisy for the average person. In fact, many experts believe that people are losing their hearing at much younger ages than they did just 30 years ago.