The University of Southampton

Author: Laura Flint

Young people, did you hear…?

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I think it’s often too easy to forget how many people are affected in one way or another by hearing loss. One of my friends recently got a hearing aid and to see how much her mental health and quality of interactions improved was surprising. I have always lived with hearing that works, and up until fairly recently, I had thought it was only really the elderly and a few younger people who were affected. However learning about hearing loss in this module and from my friend has led me to look further into the use of hearing aids in the younger population.

‘Behind the ear’ hearing aid.

Causes

Looking into acquired hearing loss, I found that most cases were due to either infections or exposure to loud music. Loud music being on this list did not surprise me much as I have had first hand experience of being in places like clubs where I could barely hear the words I was saying let alone anyone else’s. Given how important our hearing is to our everyday lives, I believe that there should be tighter regulations on the volume levels these types of places are allowed to use. A recent study found that more than a billion young adults worldwide are at risk of noise induced hearing loss which is way more than I had ever considered. It seems strange to me that workplaces have noise level regulations, but clubs don’t. How are people meant to preserve their hearing if the legislation is not put in place to protect them? I believe it is very irresponsible for the government to not put a simple limit on these things.

Design

On the topic of hearing assisting devices, it is also important to note that hearing aids have come a long way since they started and are now much more sensitive and discrete. I slightly wonder whether the move towards ‘invisible’ hearing aids is indicating that they are a bad thing that should be hidden away, and I believe these are amazing machines that allow so many people to experience the gift of hearing and should be celebrated instead of being obliged to be hidden away.

Images of five ears with different hearing aids in.
Photos of five different types of hearing aids.

Stigma

I think one of the main problems surrounding young people accessing hearing aids is the stigma attached to them. I know many people think hearing loss and hearing aids are their grandparents’ problems, but this is really harmful to young adults getting the access to devices that would greatly improve their hearing. I feel that this stigma is slowly decreasing but is still a major hurdle for many who would benefit from hearing aids. I think this is in part due to the lack of teaching about them at a young age. I know I didn’t learn anything about hearing aids in the younger population until I came to university and met people my age with them.

Video of a Deaf woman talking about her experiences with having hearing aids.

Given that our hearing is a key sense that doesn’t regenerate, I feel that it is imperative that there is more awareness of the possible causes, and how people can access help. My preconceptions about the people affected by hearing loss have definitely changed, and I am now more aware of the increasing younger population that could be so easily prevented from losing their hearing. This module has led to me making some changes to my life such as wearing earplugs when in noisy environments, and generally being more aware of how loud my environment is.

A life for a life

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Over recent years, I have become more aware of the crisis that the NHS has found itself in, regarding organ transplants. The lack of viable donors who agreed prior to death was limited and did not cover anywhere near the number of people waiting for transplants. I know that they tried to get around this by introducing the opt out system for organ donation in 2020 which was a massive step forward, however it still has its limitations. The main thing I think affects organ donations is the disparity of the genetics between the donor and the patient, leading to the need for immunosuppressant drugs to be taken for life.

Organs commonly used in transplants.

One thing that I have seen that could aid this is the use of chimeras with human derived stem cells being used to grow human organs. This would tackle so many of the current problems, as they could be genetically identical to the patient, and not require another person to die at just the right time in a specific way to allow transplant to be safe and effective.

The ethical side of this is a bit less clear cut. Currently, there are thoughts that animal chimeras would be used, for example pigs that grow human hearts or kidneys. These would be genetically engineered to lack certain organs which would be replaced with human grown ones. I can’t help but feel that the use of animals that have higher brain functioning is unethical, as they may experience unknown side-effects and experience pain and suffering that we could not prepare them for. I have always loved animals and the thought that we just decided that we were better than them and they don’t deserve the same rights has always been something that I’ve felt uncomfortable with. They are unable to consent to the research that we would be carrying out on them which makes me thing we are abusing the power we have over them.

This is the same with smaller animals such as rodents, which are deemed ok to test on. I completely understand however that this ethical dilemma is opposed by the number of people that would greatly benefit from the organs that would save their quality and quantity of life. Almost 7000 people in the UK are awaiting transplants, and 439 people died last year whilst waiting. Is it wrong to deny them the chance of life if we could save them?

A comparison of the brain makeup of rat, pig and human brains, showing the similarities between human and pig brains.

When people push for chimeric organs, they often compare it to way we slaughter pigs every day for food, and that there is little difference between this and genetically modifying them. I do not feel this to be accurate, as we are not letting them live their lives as they would do in nature, and we could not be sure that no harmful effects would be experienced by the animals. They would likely have to spend all of their life being monitored and tested to ensure the organs were growing properly, and that they were healthy.

Overall, I think that the use of chimeric animals in organ farming is not clear cut. Laws and ethical regulations would have to be heavily regulated to ensure that the animals were not adversely affected and the organs were of a high enough standard to make the animal lives lost worth it. If implemented, it would likely save countless lives awaiting transplant and reduce the illegal trafficking of organs, leading to better outcomes for all.

Plastic homes

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I recently read an article on hermit crabs that were using plastic bottle caps as homes instead of discarded snail shells. I think this seemingly tiny act really shows how much of an impact we have had as a species on the environment around us. For these animals to have chosen dirty plastic bottle caps and broken light bulb shells instead of their natural spiral shells is a devastating realisation. The scientists who were studying this found that 10 out of the 16 species of terrestrial crabs were using artificial shells like this. That is way too many!

A hermit crab using a red broken plastic bottle lid as an artificial shell.

It isn’t too late to make a change though. If we actually put funding into removing pollution from our oceans and land then not only would it make the biodiversity increase but also, for those concerned about money, it would actually increase the revenue gained from things like tourism. Companies really need to start caring more about their impact and less about profits otherwise the planet will pay more than it already has. Whilst there are things that we as individuals are able to do, like recycling where possible and reducing waste, it is so much more difficult if the major companies are not on board, as they are the producers of most of the plastic waste and pollution found in our oceans.