{"id":11766,"date":"2024-01-17T13:10:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T21:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/?p=11766"},"modified":"2024-01-17T13:10:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T21:10:58","slug":"how-are-smoking-and-hearing-loss-linked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/how-are-smoking-and-hearing-loss-linked\/","title":{"rendered":"How Are Smoking and Hearing Loss Linked?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The further we get from indoor restaurants and workplace smoking, the less believable it feels that breakfast out with your family once included buckets of secondhand smoke. While it may feel as if smoke-free laws have been around a long time, as few as 26 U.S. states had comprehensive smoke-free bans in place by December 31, 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though smoke-free bans have cut down on a substantial amount of secondhand smoke exposure, tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the United States<\/a>. When you think of smoking-related diseases, lung and throat cancer are probably the first to mind. However, one significant disease you may not consider as a result of smoking is hearing loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Common Is Hearing Loss in Smokers?<\/h2>\n\n\n
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One study analyzing the hearing of 3,753 participants found that current smokers were 1.69 times as likely<\/a> to have hearing loss than nonsmokers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Are Smokers More Likely To Develop Hearing Loss?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cigarettes are filled with over 600 ingredients that, when burned, release over 7,000 chemicals. Of these 7,000 chemicals, at least 69 are known to cause cancer or have a toxic effect on your health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because cigarettes contain so many toxic chemicals, isolating just one central explanation for their effect on your hearing is difficult. Instead, one hospital-based study<\/a> on the effects of smoking on hearing health defines several possible mechanisms responsible for hearing damage, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n