Stuff your ears, switch on, shut out the world. If you do this to take a break from work, be happy. If you take a break from this to work, beware.

For what doctors have to say about recent trends in auditory ailments is not music to the ears of the iPod generation. “There has been a spurt in hearing-impaired patients among the youth, mainly caused by excessive exposure to such devices,” says Dulal Basu, head of the ENT department, Peerless Hospital and BK Roy Research Centre. “The history of such patients reveals that they listen to music on earphones for hours every day. Earphones must not be used for more than one to two hours, as they can cause serious damage to the ear.”

With the galloping popularity of the iPod, doctors warn of ‘noise trauma’ to the inner ears. “The fluid in the inner ear has receptor cells. Earphones, if used excessively, can damage those receptor cells,” explains Ranjan Paul, head of the department of ENT, SSKM Hospital.

Paul, while admitting that “more studies and research are needed on the subject”, points to the growing number of young patients with impaired hearing caused by “excessive use of mobile music devices”.

A recent study by the London-based Deafness Research UK suggests that young people who listen constantly to personal stereos through headphones are permanently damaging their hearing. And most of them are do not realise it. “Teenagers and 20-somethings risk going deaf up to 30 years earlier than their parents because they listen to music on MP3 players, such as iPods, at high volume for lengthy periods,” the study concludes.

With iPod fast emerging as the favoured tech toy of GenX, city neurologist Tapas Kumar Banerjee even sounds an addiction alarm. “Endorphin, a chemical released by the brain, causes a sense of ‘feel-good’ in a person. For music-lovers, such devices with earphone may become an addiction as they trigger an endorphin hurrah in the brain. The more you use them, the more you get hooked to them.”

So, the prescription for iPod use? Lower volume, less use.