There’s a not so silent killer among Gen Z, one that’s constantly attacking our health and is taken for granted without us realizing it: The constant noises we choose to immerse ourselves in.

Hearing loss is growing among our generation with 10% of millennials and 17% of Gen Z suffering from some form of hearing loss according to American Hearing and Audiology.

Charles Pudrith, an associate professor teaching graduate and undergraduate level audiology, explained the main causes of hearing loss vary depending on your age, job and environmental causes. 

“In terms of things that are preventable, noise is going to be the number one cause,” Pudrith said. “I would say the people who work in music jobs are exposed way more than people who listen casually. So your musicians, your club workers, your bartenders, anybody who’s in an environment where, a lot of times it’s four nights a week, they spend four or five hours, four nights a week, exposing themselves to those high levels.”

But what is the root cause of this issue? All over the world there is a culture around music, especially where loud music equals enjoyment. You can see it in clubs, concerts, sport venues or when you listen to music through your headphones at home.

“In this context, the culture of loud music is formed as a result of the adaptation and conditioning cycles, the social acceptance of this as part of youth culture and the development of a business model that depends on, and contributes to, high sound levels,” according to the National Library for Medicine.

Once you damage your ears enough and lose your hearing there is no treatment or medicine to bring it back. Pudrith discussed some of the warning signs recommended to prevent hearing loss, including a “temporary threshold.” 

“You know that you’re doing really bad when you have what’s called the temporary threshold shift,” Pudrith said. “So, if you get out of that noisy environment and you feel either or a tinnitus ringing of your ears, you just feel that fullness. You can feel like your friends have to talk louder for you to hear. If you keep doing temporary damage over and over, eventually it’s going to start turning into permanent damage.”

To battle the effects of hearing loss, Pudrith recommends wearing musicians ear plugs when attending concerts, keeping the volume on your headphones or any other listening device to a comfortable level or wearing noise canceling headphones when things get too loud in your surroundings.  

Younger listeners should be more aware and careful of their ear health as being able to hear is something people take for granted, and once it’s gone, it’s something that can’t come back.