Effects of Light Smoking on Extra High Frequency Auditory Thresholds in Young Adults

A new study conducted in Japan and published online in the journal Toxicology and Industrial Health (doi: doi:10.1177/0748233710382539), found a correlation between hearing loss at 12 kHZ and light smoking in young men. The abstract is provided here;for a copy of the article or a subscription to the journal, please visit tih.sagepub.com/

Title: Effects of light smoking on extra-high-frequency auditory thresholds in young adults

Authors: Nobutaka Ohgami, Takaaki Kondo, Masashi Kato

Abstract: There have been few reports showing a correlation between hearing levels and life style in young people. In this study, we succeeded in sensitively evaluating hearing levels in 51 young male adults of 21-23 years in age by 12 k Hz extra-high-frequency auditory thresholds, which cannot be measured by usual audiometry devices for clinical use. Noise exposure, alcohol consumption and sleeping time did not affect hearing levels in young adults. Auditory thresholds of 12 kHz frequency in smokers were significantly (p