Rock concert temporarily harmed teens' hearing, study shows

San Diego – Roughly 70 percent of teens participating in a study experienced temporary hearing-related issues after attending a rock concert, according to research from the House Research Institute.

Researchers tested the hearing of 29 participants between 13 and 20 years old after they listened to 26 songs at a concert where the sound level was measured between 82 and 110 decibels. After the concert, 53.6 percent reported that they did not hear as well as before the concert and 25 percent reported ringing in their ears.

Researchers advised wearing hearing protection, such as foam earplugs, at concerts to help protect hearing. Study participants were offered earplugs before the concert, but only three teens used them.

Post a comment to this article

Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)