Could music make YOU deaf?

When DJs Sonia Akow and Toby Edwards yell at each other after a big night out, it's not necessarily because they are having an argument. "Neither of us can really hear the other," explains Sonia. "It's like being on a plane as it is landing - you can only hear yourself talk; everything else seems very far away. We're like an elderly deaf couple for a few days, then we're okay again -until the next time."

Clubbers, rock fans, even those who have listened to their Walkmans or car stereos at full volume, will recognise the ear-ringing and dullness of hearing that follow listening to high levels of music, which the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) says is "more damaging than a pneumatic drill".

In a recent RNID study, three out of four 18-to-30-years-olds were found to have loud ringing in their ears after going to clubs or concerts - an early warning sign of hearing damage. But only 59 per cent of the group was aware that these aftereffects were irreversible. Each time the damage occurs, it can lead to permanent hearing loss or tinnitus - constant noise in the ears - by middle age.

Sonia, 33, and Toby, 30, known on the club circuit as Soto - live in Earls Court and have been working together for eight years. Sonia is also a label manager and works in A&R for record company Botchit and Scarper. Toby is a producer and music designer who designed the sound and music for Urbis, a £30 million interactive museum in Manchester.

Sonia says that the ear-ringing is bad enough after one night at the decks, but having recently spent two months on a tour around Australia and the Far East, she admits the unpleasant effects last longer: "When we first started out, we only DJ-ed at friends' houses and, because we couldn't turn the music up that loud, our ears were fine. But once we started working in clubs, we were constantly screaming at each other to make ourselves heard, and this, of course, applies to everyone else, whether they're dancing or serving drinks.

"We get to work at around 10am, and are surrounded by music which is well above the normal volumes one would listen to as background music. It has to be loud to make sure that it's balanced properly. We have a studio at home as well, so when we're working there at night we wear headphones so as not to disturb the neighbours. On the nights we DJ, around three times a week, we play from about 10pm to 3am, and one evening a week we DJ for Breaks FM radio, where again we have the headphones on. The rest of the time we try to avoid loud music, although we sometimes go clubbing.

"At first, we weren't bothered by the ringing in our ears. Yet, the more you experience it, the more worrying it becomes. Despite having long periods of what appear to be normal hearing, I am concerned about whether I'll be affected permanently."

Toby's problem seems to be worse than Sonia's, possibly because he was prone to ear infections as a child. "Just working in clubs a couple of nights in a row makes him complain that he feels as though there's something pushing down in his ear," Sonia says. "He describes it as a pressure on his eardrums, like trapped water, and says that every so often the eardrums 'pop', and it hurts.

"This can go on for days. Everything sounds muffled and he keeps asking me to repeat myself. Often he can't hear me because he hears his own voice so loudly, he assumes he must be shouting. I try to keep my voice down and end up virtually whispering; either that or we both end up yelling. It's horrible."

Club-goers and rock fans at gigs may be even more at risk because they are in front of the speakers blaring out the sound, rather than behind them, like the DJs.

Given this wake-up call, Sonia and Toby sheepishly admit they are all too aware that they should be wearing earplugs, but they still haven't got round to buying them. The only really effective kind - "attenuators" - are custom-made. They are moulded to the ear and filter out the high-pitched frequencies that eventually cause the damage. Although the RNID suggests that "we need to get to a stage where remembering to take earplugs out with you is as commonplace as remembering safe-sex protection", the attenuators come at a price - around £200 a set.

Says Sonia: "We keep meaning to get some earplugs, but there's always more equipment to buy and another bill to pay. It's frightening to think what could happen; one DJ we know had to take six months off work because he had tinnitus. We were with another DJ in an airport lounge and he nearly freaked out when an alarm went off, because the frequency was so high.

"Toby and I know we should be more responsible. We should try the less expensive moulded plugs, the kind used for shooting or motor-racing, but these can alter the sounds we hear when we play music."