Istanbul among world’s worst cities for hearing loss, noise pollution

ISTANBUL

Residents of Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, suffer some of the worst hearing loss in the world due to excessive amounts of noise, according to data from the Worldwide Hearing Index, which was prepared for the World Hearing Day on March 3.

The city was the fifth worst city out of 50 for hearing loss, according to the Combined Hearing Loss Index, which is a combined result of the average hearing loss and the noise pollution indices.

The index was prepared by Mimi, a German scientific research company. 

In the ranking for the Average Hearing Loss, Turkey ranked 48th out of 50 in terms of healthy hearing, finishing a rank better than Mumbai and two ranks better than Delhi. 

In noise pollution, Istanbul ranked 39th out of 50 cities in terms of healthy hearing. 

According to the methodology of the study, the Average Hearing Loss for each city was ranked from 0-1, with 0 indicating the city with the lowest average hearing loss, and 1 indicating the highest. 

The noise pollution levels from each city were ranked in the same way, the study said, with the combination of the two statistics creating the Combined Hearing Loss Index.

The study found a “64 percent positive correlation with noise pollution levels in each city, indicating hearing loss may be a direct or indirect outcome of living in these cities.”

Zurich, Vienna, Oslo, Munich and Stockholm topped the list, while Guangzhou in China was bottom.