Kerekhanjanarong V, Supiyaphun P, Naratricoon J, Laungpitackchumpon P.

The effect of mobile phone to audiologic system.

J Med Assoc Thai. Sep;88 Suppl 4:S231-234. 2005

Mobile phones have come into widespread use. There are a lot of possible adverse effect to health. Use of mobile phone generate potentially harmful radiofrequency electromagnetic field (EMF) particularly for the hearing aspect.

In this study 98 subjects underwent hearing evaluations at Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Chulalongkorn University -- 31 males and 67 females; mean age was 30.48 +/- 9.51 years old, and all subjects were investigated the hearing level by audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emission (OAE) and auditory brain stem evoked response (ABR).

The average of using time were 32.54 +/- 27.64 months, with 57 subjects usually used the right side and 41 the left side. Average time of use per day was 26.31 +/- 30.91 minutes (range from 3 to 180 mins).

When the authors compared the audiogram, both pure tone and speech audiometry, between the dominant and nondominant side, it indicated that there is no significant difference. When the authors focused on the 8 subjects who used the mobile phone for more than 60 mins per day, it indicated that the hearing threshold of the dominant ears was worse than the nondominant ears.