Do you like listening to music? Do you often turn up the music when you're using earphones? If so, your hearing may have been damaged . The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried that 1.1 billion children and young people are damaging their hearing by listening to loud music. Nearly half the young people in developed countries may lose their hearing because of the "unsafe use" of music players, including smartphones. Loud music in nightclubs, parties and at sports also make it worse. The WHO advises young people to listen to music for just one hour a day. Dr. Etienne Krug told BBC: "What we're trying to do is to draw people's attention to a problem that is not talked about enough." He said it's easy to solve this problem. Dr. Krug said keeping the music down and limiting   the listening time to less than one hour a day would save a lot of people's hearing. However, he also said, "Even an hour can be too much if the music is too loud." Ralph Holme, a researcher, explained how loud noise can damage ears. He said: "Loud sounds damage your hearing by killing off thousands of little hair cells  in the inner ear. The cells can tell different sounds through vibration . But they are very _ --they get damaged easily and even die if they vibrate too much because of loud sounds for too long." He warned: "The bigger problem is they don't grow back and the ear can no longer get sound." No one wants to lose their hearing! Therefore, next time when you listen to music, make sure it's not too loud and only listen for less than an hour. You can enjoy your music much better in this way. How long does WHO advise young people to listen to music a day?
For a long time. For just one hour. For half of the day. For more than one hour.