Anchor: Lung cancer and heart conditions are prominent images that come to mind when thinking of the harmful effects of smoking, but recent studies have found that the habit can also lead to hearing problems. In South Korea, one out of four smokers in their 50s reported having problems with hearing, making the rate almost twice as high as that of non-smokers.
Our Kim Soyon has the report.
 
Report: According to the Korean Otologic Society's analysis of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a quarter of smokers in their 50s experience problems with their hearing. This percentage is one-point-7 times higher than the rate for non-smokers.
 
More than half of smokers in their 60s, or one-point-four times more than non-smokers, also experience hearing problems.  
 
Medical scientists are beginning to suspect smoking could be a factor behind the hearing loss.
 
President of the Korean Otologic Society Dr. Yeo Sang-won explained that the toxic substances in cigarette smoke shrink capillary vessels and hinder blood circulation to the cochlea, an auditory portion of the inner ear. 
 
[Sound bite: Dr. Yeo Sang-won - President, Korean Otologic Society (Korean)]
"Nicotine creates harmful substances in the body and such would be produced in the cochlea to cause hearing difficulties."
 
Similar findings have also been discovered overseas.
 
The Center for Human Communication and Deafness at Manchester University in England studied nearly 165 thousand people between the ages of 40 and 69 to look into the correlation between hearing problems and smoking.
 
It found that smokers were 15-point-one percent more likely to develop hearing problems than non-smokers. The center also discovered the rate of hearing impairment increased with the longer the time smokers continued their habit.
 
Experts say there is no cure for this hearing impairment and it is best to detect it early and block the progress of the condition, adding one more reason why it might not be a bad idea to quit the habit.
Kim Soyon KBS World Radio News.