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23 April 2007
BRUSSELS – Almost one in five (17.8 percent) young people in Flanders is suffering some degree of hearing loss because of excessive exposure to loud music or noise during their free time.
A survey of Flemish youth between the ages of 16 and 19 shows that more than half have noticed that their hearing is not optimal. In the 1970s that figure was hardly 1 percent.
Bart Vinck, professor of audiology at Ghent University, presented this and other information about hearing loss at the annual general meeting of the high council for public health, the scientific advisory body to the federal department of public health.
He is going to inventory the reasons for the increasing incidence of hearing loss among the youth and formulate recommendations.
Professor Vinck is urging that the youth be made aware of the problem without causing panic. “We have to convey to the young people that it is in their best interest to turn the volume down on their music,” Vinck says.
[Copyright Expatica News 2007]
Subject: Belgian news