I was honoured to co-author this case scenario with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. The clinical topic is on making recommendations to patients on how to lower personal listening noise exposure.
The goal is preventing hearing system damage in upcoming generations of personal listening users including children, teens, and young adults.
Noise-induced hearing impairments include distorted pitch and speech perception, static (tinnitus), and/or volume control stuck on high (hyperacusis) which can happen even when hearing thresholds are still within normal limits.
These listening and communication problems have long term negative impacts on individual quality of life including music enjoyment, social, education, and work related.
Noise control includes safer listening behaviours such as listening below 50% volume. Mandatory output intensity limits for personal listening system manufacturers would also lower the hearing health risk for users.