Second-hand smoke linked to hearing loss

As reported by the Hearing Journal:

It has been known for y eras that smoking tobacco is bad for your hearing. But a new study, published online on November 15 in the journal Tobacco Control, reports that smoking is also bad for the hearing of anyone who inhales your second-hand smoke.

Drawing on statistics collected from 1999 to 2004 by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), scientists from the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and from Florida International University's Robert Stempel School of Public Health identified 3307 self-identified non-smokers aged 20 to 69 years whose blood levels of cotinine showed that they were exposed to second-hand smoke.  Dave Fabry, PhD, lead author of the study, noted that their cotinine levels were high enough to prove significant exposure to other people's smoking, but much lower than they would be if the subjects were actually smokers, despite their claims not to be. Fabry, who is now managing director of AudioSync Hearing Technologies at Starkey Laboratories, conducted the study while on the University of Miami faculty.

In an interview with the Hearing Journal, Fabry explained that the NHANES data show that the hearing loss related to smoking or exposure to smoking differs from presbycusis and noise-induced hearing loss.  It is less dominated by high-frequency hearing loss, which makes it more similar to hearing loss in people with diabetes or cardiovascular disease.  He continued, "The ear is a good overall barometer of cardiovascular health." Thus, when smoking or other factors reduce the blood supply to the ear, it is likely to be reflected in impaired hearing.

When asked how much exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke is too much, Fabry, a former president of the American Academy of Audiology, replied, "We don't know exactly, but the threshold for damage is very low. No exposure is the only safe level."