PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Local hearing experts are putting out the warning, that too much earbud use could be hurting you.

It seems that everyone between 12 and 19 is listening to an iPod, often so loudly that you can hear the music across the room.

Philadelphia audiologist Chanel Summers says it’s taking a toll and 52 million students have permanent hearing loss blamed on excessive exposure to noise.

“The Journal of the American Medical Association reported 20-percent of those adolescents are showing hearing loss. That’s a rise of about 5% over the past 15-years.”

Summers suggests limiting the use of earbuds to just an hour at a time and never turning the volume up past 50-percent. She says hearing loss is gradual and a person doesn’t realize it’s happening until it’s too late.

Reported By Lynne Adkins, KYW Newsradio