Long term mobile phone use could cause hearing loss

Or to use an alternative title:

Study on hearing loss attributed to mobile phone use states the blindingly obvious

ExpressIndia.com have reported on a study conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). The study concludes that, “People using mobile phones for more than four years and longer than 30 minutes a day are at risk of developing hearing loss particularly at higher speech frequencies. This hearing loss was more in the dominant ear (ear of use). Presence of fullness in the ears, ear warmth, strange noises in the ear are warning signals which should not be ignored“. The study took 18 months.

Warning people about dangers to their hearing is a good thing and hopefully these results have made a few people sit up and notice. But, seems to me, that the results were very obvious in the first place. A mobile phone, pressed onto someone’s ear for long periods, possibly turned up to drown out background noise, is almost certainly going to cause hearing damage over time.

I wonder, do the instructions that come with mobile phones state the maximum volume and warn about safe use?

The study at ExpressIndia.com