Regular use of a mobile phone for more than four years almost doubles the chance of developing tinnitus - the debilitating condition that causes constant ringing or buzzing in the ears.
A study has found that people who used their mobile phone for an average of 10 minutes a day were 70 per cent more likely to have tinnitus.
But those who used their phones on both ears, and those who had used a mobile for four years or more were twice as likely to have tinnitus, reports the Telegraph.
Tinnitus, which affects millions of people worldwide, is considered a debilitating condition as sufferers may constantly hear a rushing, roaring or high pitched tone in one or both ears most of the time.
The most common cause is damage to the hearing through trauma or exposure to loud noise. However, it can also be triggered by some mental or physical changes such as depression, redundancy and illness.
The findings published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine and may help explain why the number of people reporting tinnitus is increasing.
It is thought the microwave energy produced by the phones might be the cause of the problem.
Hans-Peter Hutter, Institute of Environmental Health, University of Vienna, in Austria compared 100 people with tinnitus to 100 similar people without the condition.
He said that although they relied on people reporting their own mobile phone use and could not be sure if this was accurate, the results were “unlikely to be spurious”.
“Our results indicate that high intensity and long duration of mobile phone use might be associated with tinnitus,” Hutter added.
Published - July 20, 2010 05:00 pm IST
