Venue volume levels mean eardrums get a clubbing

SYDNEY - Punters at music venues are damaging their ears as badly as if they spent five hours in a room with a lawnmower, a new hearing study has revealed.

Researchers at Ear Science Institute Australia measured the volume of music at a dozen clubs around Perth, in the first Australian study to comprehensively calculate venue noise.

They found the average sound level was more than 95 decibels - on a par with the noise emitted by a lawnmower or circular saw.

But more worrying, says institute director and ear surgeon Professor Marcus Atlas, is that interviews with more than 300 patrons showed the average person spent five hours per session listening at that volume.

"These ears are getting an absolute hammering and that's very alarming," Professor Atlas said.

"That volume for that length of time just once is enough to begin to develop tinnitus and a mild high-frequency nerve hearing loss.

"And that's just the beginning of a progressive, irreversible hearing loss if they keep going back."

He said the findings showed a lack of awareness among young people and reinforced a new and worrying trend.

"This research supports what we are seeing - younger people in Australia and overseas are now requiring hearing aids much earlier in life as a result of irreversible hearing loss caused through listening to loud music."

The study, soon to be published in an international epidemiology journal, also found that about half the respondents knew they were at risk of hearing loss.

- AAP