According to a Japanese study, smokers may be more likely to develop hearing loss than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with each additional cigarette people smoke on a typical day.
50,000 Japanese workers (ages 20-64) who didn’t have hearing loss were examined in the study. After a maximum follow-up of eight years, more than 5,100 people developed hearing loss.
People who currently smoked were 60 percent more likely to develop high-frequency hearing loss that makes it difficult to understand speech in noisy environments, compared to nonsmokers. Current smokers were also 20 percent more likely to develop low frequency hearing loss that makes it hard to detect deep voice.
