A study about smoking and hearing-loss

L

LRosario

New member
Greetings fellas,

I never find it suitable for me to start a thread, but after reading an interesting article, I figured I'd share my findings with the board. Obvious to some and new to others (like myself).

But then again, at 22 I have a lifetime to learn new things.

The article indicates the potential damages of smoking on the ears in retrospect and that of course means trouble for those of us who depend on our ears for a living.

It first came to my attention yesterday when I was reading a related article in Rolling Stone (Madonna Cover) on how producers like George Martin, Phil Collins and Mac Fleetwood can no longer provide thier producing talents because of extensive hearing damage. For many, smoking's affect of depriving the blood of oxygen had something to do with that.

That's extremely common in this business, too. If I had a dime for every cigerrette that has been smoked just for the sessions I've been in, I would probably never have to work a day in my life again. I am an avid smoker myself, so if there's anything in this world that is going to make me quit, I think I found it. I don't think I could imagine a world where I can't be in a studio anymore.

Anyway, enough babbling from me, check out the article below and feel free to comment if you wish.

Lee Rosario

Read the Article here
 
Time to quit, Lee! :eek:

My wife is a smoker, almost a former smoker, but I know how hard it is to quit after seeing her struggles. She just can't quite seem to get over that last hurdle, which is to stop entirely. She still has one a night, or every few nights. Never in the house anymore though, she's been banned to the out of doors!

The problem is, she *likes* to smoke. She enjoys it, and really doesn't believe anything bad is going to come of it. When you feel that way about it, quitting becomes virtually impossible. Besides the fact that cigarettes are incredibly addictive.
 
but everyone knows smoking pot hightens your hearing senses




































or dulls your clients to the "everyone's happy with the mix" level :D


yeah, I've quit twice, 7 months then a year back on then 4 months and 3 months back on them this time. I know howto stop now. It was so easy last time I started again because I knew I could stop any time I wanted to :rolleyes:
 
actualy, reading that article....0.12 people out of 2500 who smoke compared to those who don't...... it's hardly cignificant :D Do you know how many peolpe you'd need in that study to get one deaf person?

<lights up and inhales deeply>

I'll do the mixing, you do the math ;)
 
SonicAlbert said:
Time to quit, Lee! :eek:

My wife is a smoker, almost a former smoker, but I know how hard it is to quit after seeing her struggles. She just can't quite seem to get over that last hurdle, which is to stop entirely. She still has one a night, or every few nights. Never in the house anymore though, she's been banned to the out of doors!

The problem is, she *likes* to smoke. She enjoys it, and really doesn't believe anything bad is going to come of it. When you feel that way about it, quitting becomes virtually impossible. Besides the fact that cigarettes are incredibly addictive.
Click to expand...

It is definitly time to quit!

Yeah, the scary thing is that i relate to your wife 100%. Smoking had become such a social and pleasant thing.

I suppose I'm just fortunate to meet the weezy old guys that I can barely have a conversation with, that combined with a powerful imagination continues to haunt my dreams!

I definitly feel you on banning her! Show us smokers whos boss and cast us out like the dogs we are!

But hopefully I can go without smoking and losing my mind at the same time. Let the fun begin!
 
LemonTree said:
actualy, reading that article....0.12 people out of 2500 who smoke compared to those who don't...... it's hardly cignificant :D Do you know how many peolpe you'd need in that study to get one deaf person?

<lights up and inhales deeply>

I'll do the mixing, you do the math ;)
Click to expand...

Oh beleive me, any excuse to quit smoking is a good one right about now :D

LemonTree said:
or dulls your clients to the "everyone's happy with the mix" level
Click to expand...

:cool: A million stories to go along with that one....
 
I am a reluctant half-pack a day smoker. By reluctant I mean that I hate the fact that I smoke, but have not yet been successful at quitting. The best I did once was 2 1/2 months. Long story as to why I started again, and that's not relevant here. I'll quit - or try again - when I have my mental and physical ducks in a row; I'm hoping/figuring before the upcoming spring.

Anyway, I would not advocate smoking to *anybody*, it's both stupid and useless. And if this article will tip the balance to get anybody to quit or not to start, that's fantastic!

But in fairness I have to say that an engineer worrying about hearing loss from smoking is like a soldier in war worrying about dying of cancer. The fact is that day in and day out of listening to nearfields at 85dBSPL is going to wipe out our hearing without question, and it's going to do it a lot faster than smoking will.

My age alone is enough, but combined with the number of years I have been working with music (studio and live), I can guarantee you my ears are not what they were 20 years ago, and that in another 20 (if not long before then) they will be useless for this kind of work. I'm lucky that my "training" of my sense of hearing is such where I'm still viable at what I do (I still hear things that most lay people half my age would never notice had I not pointed it out to them.)

It's frankly part of the landscape of audio engineering. It's like pro American-style football players who have to accept the fact that they are going to come out of the profession with permanent pains or injury. 95% of us are going to come out of this with hearing issues sooner than those in other professions. Smoking-realted hearing complications are the least of our worries. :cool:

G.
 
i tend to be sceptical of the many 'studies' concluding this or that.

it is possible that smoking causes hearing loss, but the degradation of hearing through loud music is a much greater and more significant risk, and probably outweighs the other.

however, though i smoke, i agree it is a wiser and healthier thing not to.
 
LemonTree,
I mean this with all respect, but the results are "significant". The P-values are significant at the 95% and 99% confidence levels. Significant does not imply a huge difference between people according to the variables. It means that we can generalize the findings to the population of interest. So, according to this article, being a smoker does increase your chances of noise-induced hearing loss. Eh, take it as you will.

Rory
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
The fact is that day in and day out of listening to nearfields at 85dBSPL is going to wipe out our hearing without question, and it's going to do it a lot faster than smoking will.
Click to expand...

I've been taking this amino acid called NAC and even in loud situations I haven't felt even mild tinitus... my hearing never feels fatigued after a day of recording either (maybe my brain though :P). You may be interested in taking it... it's not too expensive.

Here's an article:
http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2004/040217/040217a.htm

This could just be the ol' self-fulfilling prophecy though.
 
Strave said:
I've been taking this amino acid called NAC and even in loud situations I haven't felt even mild tinitus... my hearing never feels fatigued after a day of recording either (maybe my brain though :P). You may be interested in taking it... it's not too expensive.
Click to expand...
I hope that works out for you. But the honest truth as I see it is that at 21 you simply have not been at the game long enough. Your body is just now reaching it's peak in tearms or metabolism and aging, you are just now starting to enter the phase where the effects of age will start slowly setting in. Plus you simply have not had the extended hours of exposure yet. It may seem like you listen to a LOT of loud music already - and you probably have - but it's buildup over the years that will take it's toll.

It's like drinking. You just became legal age (in the US, anyway). One night of binge drinking or one season of regular drinking is probably not going to ruin you liver. Regular drinking for a decade or two, even if you don't binge drink, and your liver is almost certian to deteriorate faster than it should. It's the same with constant levels of loud sound on the ears.

And nowdays there is an added evil in this regard: earbuds. Listening to 100dBs of Creed in one's iPod everywhere one goes will waste one's hearing in no time at all.
 
i quit smoaking because i'd get up in the morning and i'd be fine
then i'd have a cig and notice my ears ringing

wanted to quit anyway, but that was deffinately the last straw.
 
I quit smoking after eight years of smoking a pack or more a day. It was a bitch the first few months, but easy after that.

What finally motivated me to quit was the recurring cases of bronchitis I kept getting. Finally, I had bronchitis so bad, it was a struggle just to breathe, and even walking left me seeing swirling spots. My doctor told me, "You know how you feel right now? If you don't quit smoking, someday you will get emphesema, and it will be worse than that what you are feeling right now - until you eventually can't breathe at all, and die."

Shortly after that, I threw away an almost full pack of smokes (significant because every time I tried to quit before, I always said to myself it would be after I finished this LAST pack - no sense wasting them) and quit cold turkey. That was in 1992, and I have never smoked another cigarrette since then. Never had bronchitis since then, either.
 
Well fortunately I don't smoke any more. But originally I started as a result of smoking weed, then had some bad experiences with it, kicked that but still had the regular smoking habit. Then when I was a student, I couldn't afford a pack of ciggies (they're well expensive in UK, dunno what US prices are like) so went on to rolly tobacco. Now, coupled with the fact that I wasn't brilliant at rolling and the fact that the tobacco tasted like shite, I eventually got myself down to smoking only when I `had' to.

Then, on to yorkie chocolate bars, about 4 a day. Then lots and lots of exercise (running)....Eventually I quit (about 2 years ago now).

I also heard somewhere that the physical craving (i.e. addiction) for a ciggy lasts up to three weeks after which there is just a residual mental dependency to get over.

Hope it works out mate, just think of your ears.

Cheers :-)
 
I could blame cigarettes for my hearing damage, or I could blame: Marshall, Mesa, Pearl, Paiste, Peavey, Crown, EV, etc, etc, etc........
 
hearing this is a savage thought,
losing the hearing.
on the same note...
i remember in 6th grade, at music class...this dude came in with a tube in his throat and buzzed his words to us....it still freaks me out. he showed us his hole, man! wht the fhk? it freaked me out..seems like yesterday and it was >20yrs ago.... he had the C in the throat.
 
Damn, I sure am glad I don't smoke. I had a few ciggs during high school, but then I got bitched at by everyone and didn't want to deal with that anymore so I stopped. I hang out with a group of smokers here in college and one by one, they're quitting. I'm glad they have the sense to, seeing as how they're college students. ;)
 
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