Smoke gets in your ears -- if you’re a teen exposed to secondhand smoke -- and is associated with hearing loss, a large study suggested. Exposed adolescents were 1.83 times more likely to experience low-frequency hearing loss than those who had no exposure, according to Dr. Anil K. Lalwani and colleagues from New York University in New York City. And the greatest risk for hearing loss -- a 2.72-fold increase -- was in those with the highest levels of exposure as determined by serum cotinine levels, Lalwani’s group reported in the July Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
