High frequency hearing loss among American teenagers doubled between 1985 and 2008

"The always-on, always-cranked lifestyle has obvious consequences, but is it really this bad? According to recent research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, hearing loss has essentially doubled since 1985. The results, officially released a few months ago, unsurprisingly peg MP3 players and smartphones as a major culprit.    
And the numbers are hard to look at. "High frequency hearing loss (HFHL) doubled over the 24-year period from 10.1 percent in 1985 to 19.2 percent in 2008," researching PhDs Abbey L. Berg and Yula C. Serpanos relayed after combing through decades of data.  But once data is analyzed through 2011, noticeable hearing loss among teenagers may have pushed past the 20-mark."

Source:  Data from the Journal of Adolescent Health, reported by DigitalMusicNews, 5th July 2011