People constantly keep listening to Music, Video, Radio on the move. With the advent of media mobile phones and iPod-everywhere phenomenon, listening to audio via Headphones on the move has increased. Infact it has become habit to many people who travel to office by Bus, Trains, Tubes and even Car. In Chennai, every time I stop at the traffic signals I see almost 40% of the people with headphones / earphones on the move.

Yes, it is good to listen refreshing music or favorite albums or news. But did many of them realized that by using headphones regularly, they are actually doing more harm to their ears than the Global Pollution? One of our team-mate who used to listen music for more than 4 hours a days is now suffering with pain. Scanning revealed that the nerves joining the ear drum has weakened. Lucky, that he can still hear. He is under treatment and is not using cellphones, desk phones and even stopped listening to any sounds at all. Stuffs ample cotton in his ears now !

Studies show that ear-phones tend to heat up the ear canal and thus the harm starts slowly. Listening for 1 or 2 hours max is recommended. Anything more than this duration will definitely pave way for future troubles. Another team member informed me that his doctor advised him to avoid cheap headphones and settle for Professional grade headphones, that too for 1 hour listening. Cheap headphones are not tuned properly to match sensitiveness of ear drums, and thus tend to create hearing problems soon. So next time, when you want to listen music through headphones, invest in buying a professional make, and make sure you use them for 1 hour per day and not more than that.

- Rajesh