耳塞会损害我们的听力吗?

A story affecting every American family. Here is the question. Are your earphones ruining your hearing? Right now, tonight, are millions and millions of Americans walking around, listening to music but ensuring they will not be able to hear as well in the years ahead. Tonight, the mayor of New York says it's time to send out an alarm. And ABC's chief medical editor Dr. Richard E. Besser is stepping in.

30 years ago, peole in their 20s could all hear the rustle of the leaves, the drip of a rain drop, the dabble of children. Now for 1 in 5 of them, the sounds have gone forever.

“Normally people will come in their 50s and 60s with hearing loss. And now that has shifted into people in their 30s and 40s.” In fact, Dr. George Alexiades has to tell more and more teens, their high-pitched hearing is already gone.

(Everybody in the club)

Designer headphones are big business, high-ticket must-haves. But for hearing loss, earbuds maybe the most destructive. Some context: music devices can produce about 115 decibels of sound, earbuds at 5 decibels more. 85 decibels is where hearing damage starts. Power tools, 98 decibels. A lawn mower, 107. A jet taking off 100 feet away, 140. So how loud is the music? I went out with a decibel meter.

--Coming in about 95. 105. Wow, 109.

--Oh my god.

Here is what happened inside you ear. When strong sound vibrations hit your ear, the problem deep inside the cochlea are fragile hear cells. They turn vibration into sound messages to the brain. Blast the more loud sounds, some wither. If loud sound is brief, they will recover. But if it lasts too long or happens too often, they die and they’ll never grow back.

“If you get to 100 decibels, I would limit that to about 1 hour a day.”

My advice? Never go higher than 3/4 of your top buying. And a couple of hours is enough.

Dr. Richard E. Besser, ABC News, New York