Smoking May Cause Hearing Loss: Smokers and Passive Smokers at Risk

There's yet another reason to avoid lighting up. Scientists have found that smokers and passive smokers are more likely to suffer hearing loss.

In order to learn whether smoking could impact hearing, the researchers examined 164,770 UK adults between the ages of 40 to 69 years. These adults took hearing tests between 2007 and 2010 when they joined UK Biobank, which is a national project to improve health.

So what did they find? It turns out that current smokers had a 15.1 percent higher odds of hearing loss than non-smokers. Not only that, but passive smoking also increased the likelihood of hearing loss by 28 percent. The increased link among passive smokers could be because smokers were compared to both complete non-smokers and passive non-smokers, but passive smokers were only compared to non-smokers.

"Given around 20 percent of the UK population smoke and up to 60 percent in some countries, smoking may represent a significant cause of hearing loss worldwide," said Piers Dawes, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We found the more packets you smoke per week and the longer you smoke, the greater the risk you will damage your hearing."

Currently, researchers aren't sure exactly what causes the hearing loss. Yet they do know that many smokers also have heart disease, which could indicate a possible correlation.

"We are not sure if toxins in tobacco smoke affect hearing directly, or whether smoking-related cardiovascular disease causes microvascular changes that impact on hearing, or both," said Dawes in a news release.

The findings reveal a possible way to help prevent hearing loss. By quitting smoking, it's possible to reduce the risk.

"Hearing loss affects 10 million people in the UK and with an aging population is set to become a major public health issue," said Ralph Holme, Head of Biomedical Research at Action on Hearing Loss, in a news release. "Hearing loss is often viewed as an inevitable consequence of aging, but as the research published today shows, this many not always be the case. Giving up smoking and protecting your ears from loud noise are two practical steps people can take today to prevent hearing loss later in life."

The findings are published in the Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology.