Research by Erasmus MC shows that 14 percent of children between 9 and 11 years old have hearing damage. “Those are serious numbers that require action,” says Kloet. According to the Municipal Health Service (GGD), thousands of young people in our country develop serious hearing problems every year. “This really has to stop,” clinical audiologist Dyon Scheijen tells AD. “This generation will have many problems understanding speech when they are over 40, with all the consequences that entails.”
Earplugs effective
Research shows that approximately half of the audience at the Lowlands and Pinkpop festivals wears hearing protection. And that is unfortunate, because Dutch research conducted in 2015 during an outdoor festival in Amsterdam showed that using universal filter earplugs is effective in preventing hearing damage caused by exposure to loud sounds. Among test subjects without earplugs, the risk of temporary hearing loss was more than five times as high as among test subjects who did wear earplugs.