We all know that loud noise can damage your hearing - but not enough noise can also impair it.
As a result, people in cities have better hearing than those in quiet villages.
German researches tested the hearing of some 10,000 people. People exposed to loud noises as part of their jobs, such as construction workers, had poor hearing. But those living in quiet rural areas had hearing not much better. And people, including pilots or orchestral musicians, who encounter constant noise at work, could hear very well.
Continual exposure "trains" the ear to tolerate it; it is sudden, extreme noise that does the damage, which would explain why some Asian villagers, whose quiet lives are punctuated by occasional firework celebrations, have the worst hearing of all.
Adapted from Reader's Digest, August 2005, page 136.
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