There may be more significance to the color of one's eyes than cues to wardrobe selections. One study links dark eyes to lower incidence of noise-associated hearing loss (M.-L. Barrenas, F. Lindgren. "The influence of inner ear melanin on susceptibility to TTS in humans," Scandinavian Audiology, 19:97-102, 1990), and another indicates that having brown eyes raises the risk of hearing loss following cisplatin chemotherapy (T.N. Wendell et al., "Cisplatin in children: hearing loss correlates with iris and skin pigmentation," Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 109, 926-9, 1995). Apparently melanin in the inner ear, more abundant in the darker-eyed, retains cisplatin metabolites that are toxic to the cochlea. Now an observant audiological scientist at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton, U.K., has added another eye color-health link to this list. According to Helen E. Cullington, those with light-colored eyes are more likely...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
