Health scare of the week: How headphones can kill

Listening to music while walking can be deadly, especially for young men, USA Today reports. A new study shows that over the past six years, as iPods and other audio players have become increasingly popular, the number of headphone-wearing pedestrians killed or seriously injured by vehicles has tripled. Of 116 victims, two out of three were males under the age of 30. Half were hit by trains, and in 29 percent of cases, they had ignored warning horns or sirens before being struck.

“Everybody is aware of the risk of cellphones and texting in automobiles, but I see more and more teens distracted with the latest devices and headphones in their ears’’ while on foot, says pediatrician Richard Lichenstein of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Loud music doesn’t just drown out indications of danger; it also increases “inattentional blindness,” a zoning-out that causes people to overlook obvious visual cues.

Teens, says Lichenstein, may be at increased risk because they’re not “as conscious of their surroundings” as adults are. When kids get their first gadgets requiring headphones, he says, parents should warn them to stay focused and “keep the volume down.”

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