A survey for Hearing Clearer Awareness Month shows that eight out of ten of us - 48 million Brits - neglect our hearing, and one in seven of us suffers hearing loss. According to Deafness Research UK, this means that more of us than ever are losing our hearing prematurely.

At the moment nine million people in the UK suffer from hearing loss, with 40% of over-50s currently affected. But experts predict today's youngsters could suffer hearing problems 30 years earlier than their grandparents did.

"While ageing is the most common cause of hearing loss, affecting the majority of over-80s, noise is the most common preventable cause," says Angela King, senior audiologist with RNID.

"More than half a million people in the UK currently have hearing difficulties due to noise at work, according to the Medical Research Council. And more people than ever regularly get potentially damaging noise doses from music."