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The most endangered kids are those who wander around with cassette players blaring music into their skulls for hours. These personal stereos can funnel blasts of 110 decibels or more into the ear. "If you can hear the music from a Walkman someone next to you is wearing, they are damaging their ears," declares Dr. Jerome Goldstein of the American Academy of Otolaryngology. After years of such assaults, notes audiologist Dean Garstecki, head of the hearing- impairment program at Northwestern University, "we've got 21-year-olds walking around with hearing-loss patterns of people 40 years their senior."
The ear is an amazingly flexible organ, but it simply was not designed to withstand the strain of modern living. Hearing naturally deteriorates with advancing years, but not by much. Mabaan tribesmen in the Sudan, for example, who have never been exposed to industrial sounds, maintain their hearing into old age. Sudden intense noise, like a gunshot or dynamite blast, can damage hearing instantly by tearing the tissue in the delicate inner ear. Sustained noise from a jackhammer or disco music is more insidious. The prolonged barrage flattens the tiny hair cells in the inner ear that transmit sound to the nerves. As the hairs wilt, people often feel a fullness or pressure in the ears or a buzzing or ringing, known as tinnitus.
Such symptoms soon subside and the hairs regain their upright posture -- if the ear gets some rest. But unrelenting noisy assaults can eventually cause the hair cells to lose their resilience and die. They do not regenerate, and the result is a gradual loss of hearing.
Those who cannot escape exposure to loud or prolonged noise should wear ear protectors, which can muffle sound by about 35 decibels. National Institute on Deafness director Snow contends that such protective gear should be as commonplace for children as bicycle helmets and infant car seats. His institute and other organizations are launching programs to educate children about hazards to hearing. And musicians who have suffered hearing loss, including Pete Townshend of the Who, are helping spread the message about the price of high-decibel rock. "We teach kids to keep their hands off the hot stove," says Jeff Baxter of the Doobie Brothers. "Let's do the same with their hearing."
Efforts are also beginning to be made to attack unavoidable noise pollution. John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, Calif., boasts the toughest runway noise standards in the country. Observers can stand on the field and carry on conversations in normal tones, even as jets take off and land. Los Angeles International Airport has pledged to be equally quiet by the end of the decade.
Some communities are starting to enforce antinoise ordinances more vigorously. New York City, arguably the noisiest urban center in the country, issued 1,000 citations last year, up from 700 in 1988, primarily targeting air-conditioning equipment, discos, street construction machinery and horn blowing. In Southern California, police in National City and Redondo Beach have been empowered to confiscate big speakers installed in autos to make them what are known as "boom cars." Says officer Michael Harlan of National City: "If we hear a boom car 50 ft. or more away on a public street, we can cite the driver."