According to health experts, about a quarter of the teenagers are at the risk of early hearing loss because of the increasing use of personal listening devices such as MP3 players and iPods. Personal listening devices allow users to listen to clear music on loud volume for hours at one go. According to the researchers at the Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel, teeagers are at a high risk of developing hearing problems because of the use of these devices.

Chava Muchnik professor of audiology at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Centre said that one in four teenagers are in danger of early hearing loss as a direct result of using these devices.

Muchnik along with his colleagues Ricky Kaplan-Neeman, Noam Amir and Ester Shabtai studied teens' music listening habits and also measured preferred acoustic levels. The research shows that teens have listening habits that are turning these devices into health hazard. "In 10 or 20 years, it will be too late to realize that an entire generation of young people is suffering from hearing problems much earlier than expected from natural ageing," says Muchnik.