Nothing Too Surprising

Smoke a joint, put on the headphones, and enjoy a bout with self-inflicted autism. Problem is, the inability to hear others could become permanent:

The surge in sales of iPods and other portable music players in recent years could mean many more people will develop hearing loss, experts fear.

If the volume through headphones is too high, there is a real risk of permanent damage to hearing, they say.

Sydney's National Acoustic Laboratories found a quarter of personal music system users in a random sample listened to music at dangerous volumes.

Link.