Are earbuds wrecking our hearing? It's complicated

We spend a lot of time listening to headphones and earbuds. Intuitively, this sounds like it spells trouble for our hearing: the World Health Organization says that consistent exposure to sound measured at 80 decibels or louder can cause hearing damage, and earbuds and headphones can easily exceed 100 decibels at high volumes.

But how much of a problem is this, really? Are our earbuds wrecking our ears? I put the question to Rick Neitzel, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and principal investigator in the multi-year Apple Hearing Study. Turns out, the answer is that it's complicated.

What is the Apple Hearing Study?

Apple tapped the University of Michigan to help study environmental sound exposure

While there isn't definitive population-wide data to point to, surveys say that a lot of us — particularly young people — spend a considerable amount of time listening to personal audio devices on a daily basis. And according to the American Osteopathic Association, one in five teens today will experience some degree of hearing loss, a sharp increase compared to decades past.

So it makes sense that Apple, whose AirPods arguably played an outsize role in normalizing our earbud obsession, has a keen interest in the link between earbud use and hearing damage. In 2019, in collaboration with the University of Michigan and the World Health Organization, Apple launched the Apple Hearing Study to look at how various types of sound exposure can impact hearing.

The Apple Hearing Study monitors participating iPhone users' listening habits on connected audio devices, as well as environmental sound levels using the microphones on their Apple Watches. Data collected is analyzed by researchers at the University of Michigan's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. The study is ongoing, and new insights are periodically released. Neitzel tells me the study currently has about 180,000 participants.

Are earbuds wrecking our ears?

Only for some of us

I asked Neitzel what the data he's seeing in the Apple Hearing Study says about earbud use, and whether our listening habits are ruining our ears. He cautioned that the study is ongoing, but so far, preliminary results actually aren't looking too dire, at least not for earbuds and headphones in particular.

"It appears that the average person in our study is getting about five decibels more exposure from their environment on a daily basis than they're getting from their earbuds or their headphones. And so that's kind of a good news story," Neitzel said.

"We're seeing that about 20 percent of our participants have daily exposures (to environmental sound) that are over what the Environmental Protection Agency recommends as a healthy level. So we're trying to keep people below a 24-hour average of 70 decibels from environmental sound."

"We're seeing only about 15 to 18 percent of folks are above the recommended level from their headphone or earbud exposure."

Risk of hearing damage increases as we're exposed to sound over time, Neitzel explained. While a few minutes of cranking your earbuds likely won't cause long-term harm, sustained exposure to sound over a certain threshold can do irreversible damage. Neitzel says it's about averages; someone who maintains an average exposure of 70 decibels or less is less likely to experience sound-related hearing damage.

"About 20 to 25 percent of our participants are routinely over that level" due to environmental sound, Neitzel continued. "Meaning, there's some potential risk over the long term to their hearing from their environmental exposures, and we're seeing only about 15 to 18 percent of folks are above the recommended level from their headphone or earbud exposure."

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But while study participants are more likely to experience excessive sound levels from their day-to-day environment than they are their earbuds, 15 percent is far from zero. Neitzel also points out that hearing loss risk is affected by a combination of environmental sound and earbud use.

"If we've got someone who is already in a noisy workplace or lives in a very noisy neighborhood, and so they already have kind of elevated background levels, and they're also listening to their earbuds or headphones at a very high volume for lots of time during the day, those are probably the folks who are going to be at the greatest risk of the hearing loss," Neitzel said.

What can we do to protect our hearing?

Turn it down and take breaks

Exposure to sound measured at 70 decibels or less — about as loud as a washing machine — is generally considered safe. But as the World Health Organization explains, exposure to 80-decibel sound — sitting in the dining room at a bustling restaurant — is likely to cause hearing damage after about 40 hours across a seven-day period. At 100 decibels (about as loud as a hair dryer next to your head), hearing damage can occur in as little as 20 minutes.

The best way to protect your hearing is to be mindful of your overall sound exposure, both with and without earbuds or headphones. When it comes to mitigating your risk from your earbuds, Neitzel says that getting a proper seal and using active noise canceling can both help; when less external sound makes it to your ears, you can enjoy your media at lower volumes. Taking breaks is also important.

"You know, I think people may think, well, my ears aren't ringing, they're not bleeding, they can't be getting harmed. But, unfortunately, our ears don't give us that feedback until it's incredibly loud," Neitzel told me.

"So," Neitzel continued, "simply taking a moment and asking yourself, you know, when was the last time I gave my ears a break, what volume level am I listening to? And if the answer is not for a long time, and I'm listening at high volume, those are the folks I think who are going to be most at risk and might benefit from turning it down a little bit or maybe listening for a little less time in a given day."

Use the tools you've got

Many headphones and earbuds offer software features aimed at limiting your sound exposure. Google's Pixel Buds app has a Hearing Wellness screen that shows at a glance both your current earbud sound exposure and your exposure over the past 24 hours and seven days of listening, with the option to send warning notifications when your listening is getting dicey. Apple's AirPods offer a similar suite of features on iOS, and many of Sony's earbuds and headphones support a feature called Safe Listening that keeps tabs on your sound exposure over time.

If you're not sure whether your earbuds or headphones offer a similar feature, poke around their companion app and do a little research. Samsung devices and iPhones also offer system-level settings to cap media volume at a fixed maximum, though not all Android phones do.

Sound exposure from our earbuds and headphones is only part of the equation, though. Someone who has high sound exposure while not wearing headphones (at work, for example) is more vulnerable to additional hearing stress from personal audio devices.

"Again," Neitzel reminds us, "it's not just coming from the earbuds, it's not just coming from the environment, but rather the combination of both."

Neitzel also told me he thinks sound exposure should be more prominent in public health discussions.

"The Environmental Protection Agency actually has an office that is nominally responsible for educating the public and funding research along these lines. That office hasn't been funded in over 40 years," he said, referring to the Office of Noise Abatement and Control, which lost funding under Ronald Reagan in 1981.

"So, you know, people have the opportunity to agitate to our legislatures to actually try to get this recognized as an important potential environmental hazard that we should be educating people on and we should be potentially regulating. So that's one area where I think there's room for improvement."

Try to keep it under 70dB

Most of the time, anyway

There's no doubt that earbuds and headphones can cause hearing damage — at high volumes, personal audio devices easily exceed safe levels. But as Neitzel explains it, data collected in the Apple Hearing Study shows that most people aren't consistently exposing themselves to harmful sound levels with their earbuds.

If you want to protect your own hearing, the guidance is reassuringly commonsense: try to keep the volume low, take regular listening breaks, and be mindful of your sound exposure when you're not wearing headphones, too.

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