SAN ANTONIO — Most of us have at least one pair of earbuds. But could they cause more harm than good?
The first single ear listening device was used in the 1880s by telephone operators. With the guidance of the Navy a man by the name of Nathaniel Baldwin invented headphones in 1910. Fast forward to 1979 and the Sony Walkman and those tiny padded puppies. And in 2015 the first wireless earbuds were made by the Japanese company Onkyo.
"I probably use them like maybe two, three or four hours a day," said Cross Mendoza, who loves his earbuds. "I use them quite a bit just because, you know, they lock in the sound and it kind of distracts me from everything else."
We asked him how much bacteria he thought they may have.
"I mean, if I were if I were to guess, I'd say they're probably they're probably pretty dirty," Mendoza said.
But he does clean them often.
"I try to wipe them off, make sure I don't get any of that gross earwax, build up maybe twice a month, or I'll get like Clorox wipes and I'll just clean the tips up clean inside of the case," Mendoza said.
An NSF International Household Germ study found the average pair of personal in-ear headphones is home to 119,186 CFU, or colony-forming units. That's a measurement of bacteria. That amount is more than 6 times the average kitchen faucet, 330 times more than a kitchen countertop, and 2,700 times the bacteria on an average cutting board.
"Here we test hearing and we fit hearing aids," said Board-certified hearing specialist Larry Farris, an audiologist with Hearing Aid Labs on San Antonio's northwest side. And he's found plenty of things in ears that will give you the heebie jeebies like tons of excess wax, spiders and bed bugs and infections.
"A patient had come in and the ear was bothering them, but only when they put in their hearing aid. So we looked in the ear and she had a little bed bug in her ear. So when she put in the hearing aid, the bug was scratching against her eardrum," Farris said.
Bugs aside, avoiding that infection is a big deal. According to Wirecutter, the best way to clean your earbuds properly is with soapy water, a soft microfiber cloth so your earbuds won't get scratched, an earbud cleaning tool to clean out the gunk, a silica gel pack to keep your earbuds dry, and rubbing alcohol to keep the device germ free.
Farris says all that is a little extreme.
"I would just clean it just like this using an alcohol pad," he said.
Wirecutter also advises the best way to clean earbuds is with a small, soft brush to remove debris. Also, clean the charging case and battery connections. After working out,wipe the earbuds down and allow them to dry fully before charging.
Farris says your ears shouldn't be wet when you use the buds too.
"Make sure your ears dry because if you're turning around and then put in the ear, but then you're just trapping moisture in the air and that creates a good chance of getting an ear infection," Farris said.
Farris says he'd be just as worried about the volume as much as getting an infection, especially when it comes to your kids.
"Because if you're hearing it outside of the ear, think of the amount of volume that's going on inside," Farris said.
So keep the earbuds dry, keep the volume down, keep water out of your ear, and hang on to your hearing.