Tune deafened

8216;8216;The message is that these are potentially dangerous sounds that these devices are capable of,8217;8217; said Brenda Lonsbury-Martin, director of the Science and Research Program for American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association, which commissioned the study.

Students and adults were nearly equally likely to use their Apple iPods with the volume turned loud, with students twice as likely as adults to play it very loud. Adults were more likely to use their MP3 players longer. There is no medical therapy to reverse hearing loss once it has occurred, experts said. The findings for high school students were based on a national telephone survey with a target sample of 301 interviews and a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points.

The survey of a target sample of 1,000 interviews8212;margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points8212;looked at the habits of high school students and adults who use portable music and DVD players that used ear buds or earphones. The poll, conducted by Zogby International, also asked responders about potential hearing loss from such devices and the most effective way to issue warnings about potential hearing loss. LAT-WP