Have you heard? Apparently iPods cause hearing loss. A Journal of the American Medical Association study published in August found that 14.9 percent of teenagers aged 12-19 suffered from hearing loss from 1988-94; 19.5 percent of the same age group had hearing loss from 2005-06. Throw in another statistic, a 100 percent increase in the number of iPods in existence from 2005-06 as compared to 1988-94, and it's clear what's behind this statistically significant rise in teen hearing loss.
Or maybe it's not so clear, after regarding a meta-study from the University of Minnesota. Researchers there found that 15 percent of the university's marching band members su