Health: Time to hear the warning bells

THE pub was at bursting point, beer was flowing and, as two teams thrashed it out, excitement was reaching fever pitch.

Iain Clark was enjoying the rugby on the pub's big screen too, except for the fellow drinker standing close by with the very loud voice.

"Then he leaned forward, right over my right shoulder to scream - and I mean really scream - at the television," he recalls.

"But as well as screaming at the television, he yelled right into my ear. I knew instantly what had happened."

Iain was left kicking himself for he already knew the damage even a brief burst of exceptionally loud noise could do to his hearing - a spell of noisy DIY hammering a few years earlier had left him with a constant ringing in his left ear. Now, thanks to a stranger in a pub, tinnitus was affecting his right ear too.

The result is a constant high-pitched tone in his head, endlessly droning in the background, an ever-present reminder of that day in the pub that could easily drive less patient characters than Iain to utter despair.

"But I'm lucky," he grins. "I'm an upbeat kind of person. I'm hyper happy - well above the normal - so I can cope. I've taught myself to ignore it. That said, I can understand how it could easily get someone down."

Precisely how many Scots suffer from tinnitus can only be guessed at. However, figures from charity Deafness Research UK suggests more than 12,700 of us approached GPs or occupational health professionals in 2009 to highlight concerns over tinnitus symptoms.

And, worryingly, the trend seems to be heading upwards, with more Scots under the age of 35 reporting tinnitus-like symptoms than ever before. For some, the ringing might last just a few miserable hours. For others, like Iain, it becomes an annoying way of life that, so far, science has not been able to cure.

"It's a high-pitched monotone that never goes away," adds the 38-year-old from Bruntsfield. "Most people will have experienced something like it, probably after they've been out clubbing or listening to loud music. If they're lucky, that might last for a few hours, a day at the most.

"If you have tinnitus, it's there all the time."

And our increasing tendency to pump up the volume - whether it's MP3 players, blaring cinema noise, live concerts, noisy pubs or heaving clubs - means the misery of tinnitus may be on the cards for many of us.

Which is why the charity is bringing their Bionic Ear Show to selected Edinburgh schools next week - a lively mixture of fun and information aimed at warning youngsters that their next "download" could be tinnitus.

"We reckon that around five million people in the UK suffer from tinnitus at any one time," explains the charity's information adviser Andrew Goodwin, who will join a team from the charity at next week's school events.

"Around 250,000 of them will have it so bad that it will affect their sleep and the quality of their life. It's very common."

And it's also very easy to acquire: "What's crucial is that it's not always how loud something is but how long you listen to it," adds Andrew. "If you listen to an MP3 player at maximum volume of about 110 decibels, it will take 15 minutes to promote damage to your hearing. It's a very, very short time.

"What's more scary is that there are some MP3 players that go up to 120 decibels, and it takes just ten seconds to damage your hearing."

For Iain, it wasn't the pumping sound of an MP3, the blare of a rock concert or even the ear drum bashing noise of a pneumatic drill that left him with the endless buzz of tinnitus. It was a simple, everyday spot of hammering. "I was installing some steel sheet piling at the bottom of the garden, I was holding it, my brother was using a sledge hammer to drive it into the ground. Every time he hit it, it rang like a loud bell.

"Afterwards, I was conscious of this ringing in my ear at one side of my head. I knew pretty much right away that it was tinnitus."

The ringing stayed long after he might have expected it to fade. In fact, it didn't go away.

"Next time was in the pub," he adds. "And then, to my shame, I ended up making it all worse at work last year when, really, I should have known better."

Iain, who constructs wind farms for a living, was using a drop hammer, which uses a metal weight dropped from a height to pound another piece of metal into the ground. "I was under pressure and working by myself, so I just carried on without any ear protection.

"That was ridiculously wrong, because it was very loud and, of course, it made the existing tinnitus even worse." Andrew points out that we don't have to be working with heavy metals to suffer hearing problems - just walking down the street can leave our ears ringing.

"You walk past a pneumatic drill, that's 90 decibels," he says. "And with each three decibels that the sound increases, it has double the power. So by the time you're playing your MP3 at 110 decibels or sitting in the cinema, that's already eight times louder than a pneumatic drill.

"The noise in night clubs can easily go up to 120 decibels - perhaps even more. But while the staff might be given ear protection, the punters are actually paying to have their hearing damaged," Andrew adds.

And while the roadshow will take it's message to local schoolchildren, it's not just young people who are at risk, he warns.

"These days people of all ages walk around with headphones on. Whether they are listening to music or a podcast, if it's too loud it can damage their hearing.

"Our message is 60-60 - never play your MP3 player at more than 60 per cent of its volume for more than 60 minutes."

For Iain, tinnitus is a constant reminder of how sensitive our hearing can be.

"I don't know if I'm more sensitive to hearing problems or just unlucky," he shrugs. "I try not to think about it, if I ignore it, I can live with it. If I think about it too much, it would drive me insane."

• Deafness Research UK will visit five schools next week - Bonaly, Blackhall and Dalry primary schools and Craigroyston High and Castlebrae Community High School.

SOUNDING OFF

If you already suffer from some form of hearing loss, you are more likely to also suffer from tinnitus, but people who have no previous hearing difficulty can also become affected.

Stress plays a major factor, too - if you are highly stressed there is more chance of tinnitus - and, of course, loud noise is another main cause.

The condition has also been linked to an over-production of protein which can affect the transmission of signals from the brain to the nerves.

In some cases it's thought to be linked to the way the brain deals with hearing damage - over-compensating for sound it is expecting to hear.

For more information and support on the subject, visit www.deafnessresearch.org.uk