Holi 2026: ENT Expert Warns These Common Mistakes Can Damage Your Ears
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Synthetic colours, loud music, and water balloons during Holi can cause ear infections, hearing loss, and other ENT complications.
Experts warn that synthetic colours, loud music, and water balloons during Holi can increase the risk of ear infections, eardrum injury, and hearing damage.
Using synthetic colours, which usually contain harmful metals and chemicals, can enter the ear and irritate the EAC lining, leading to intense itching, pain, breach of the epithelial barrier, and subsequent infections like otitis externa, otomycosis, and dermatitis. Dermatitis can cause intense itching, which in turn leads to more abrasions and infections.
Dr Ravinder Gera, Principal Director and HOD, ENT, Max Hospital, Gurugram, shares all you need to know:
Leaving ears damp because of trapped water provides a breeding ground for bacteria or even fungus, causing otomycosis.
Using forceful water sprays or direct hits from water balloons can cause rupture of the (perforated) eardrum, leading to sudden pain, ear discharge, tinnitus, and hearing loss.
Rarely, a foreign body in the ear can occur in the form of burst balloon particles.
Loud music and sound systems can cause acoustic trauma, leading to immediate and sometimes permanent hearing loss. High-intensity sounds can damage inner ear structures, necessitating immediate medical attention if symptoms like pain or vertigo persist.
One should also be cautious about epistaxis, i.e., nasal bleeding, which can occur due to dryness of the nasal mucosa, mucosal irritation, or trauma from forceful colour application.
Another issue that can arise is nasal vestibulitis, which is an infection of the nasal vestibular region. It can occur due to irritation from chemical colours entering the nostrils. This otherwise casual-seeming infection can turn dangerous as it can spread to the dangerous triangle of the face.
Allergic rhinitis can occur due to inhalation of dry colour powders acting as allergens or irritants. Acute rhinosinusitis can occur due to contamination of the nasal mucosa with dirty water, leading to secondary infection.
If colours or dirty water are ingested, pharyngitis can occur. If this irritant exposure is combined with excessive shouting, laryngitis can develop. Vocal traumatic lesions of the larynx may involve structural damage such as hematoma and mucosal lacerations.
To prevent all this, ear plugs can be used. The use of organic colours should be encouraged. Loud music should be avoided or exposure limited. Shouting and use of a shrill voice should also be avoided.
March 02, 2026, 07:32 IST
