Strauss P, Quante M, Strahl M, Averhage H, Bitzer M
Laryngol Rhinol Otol (Stuttg). 1977 Oct;56(10):868-71.
An examination of 1300 students between the ages of 10 and 20 who had not yet been exposed to industrial noise was performed in order to establish to what extent general environmental noise influences hearing. The fact that there was no age-dependent increase of high tone hearing loss, as well as the small correlation between hearing loss and total noise load are evidence that there is no hearing loss produced by increasing environmental noise exposure of teenagers in Germany. Middle ear infections, infections diseases and skull trauma are suggested as causes of the usually minimal high tone hearing losses.
