Text Box: Volume 9, Number 2         SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE HEALTH AND WELLNESS SERVICES        October 2004  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds of 80dB or less are safe for nearly all healthy adults, no matter how long you hear them.  Sounds of 85dB should be limited to no more than 8 hours a day, and 91dB to two hours for a healthy adult.  Limit the 100dB sounds to 15 minutes, and 120dB sounds to about 9 seconds.  Sounds in the 125-140dB range are loud enough to cause pain unless you protect your ears with earplugs.  The long-term effects of high noise levels for children are unknown; therefore, the thresholds cited here may be too high for them.

 

Reprinted from Protecting Your Ear (Special Supplement).  Report from Harvard Medical School, WHW-HEAR3                                                                         cad

 

 

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Text Box: At first you may not notice any change.  You simply turn up the volume on the car radio or unconsciously stand closer to people to hear them.  One of the first clues that your hearing isn’t as good as it used to be may come when you’re at a party and can’t make out what your friends are saying.  Or maybe you notice your telephone blinking with a message that was left and you didn’t hear the phone ring.  When these sorts of experiences occur regularly, there’s no denying that you have hearing loss.  It is time to seek help.   Nearly 28 million Americans, or 10% of the population, have some degree of hearing loss.  A major cause is age.  One-third of people age 65-75, and half of those age 75 and older, are hard of hearing.  But hearing loss isn’t just a condition of advancing years.  In fact, it’s on the rise among people from their teens to their 40’s.  That’s because the single biggest cause of hearing loss is also on the rise: loud noise.   The world has become a noisier place in recent years, with much of the pumped-up volume coming from the form of entertainment, like the sophisticated sound systems in movie theaters, and convenience devices, such as low dryers, leaf blowers, and snow blowers.  Loud noise degrades sensory cells in the ear, cells that don’t grow back and can’t be replaced.  Because these cells naturally deteriorate with age, the damage done by loud noise makes age-related hearing loss even worse.  More that 30 million American children and adults are exposed to dangerously loud noise on a regular basis, according to the National Institutes of Health.   The last several years have also seen advances in the treatment of hearing loss.  Hearing aids are smaller and less obtrusive than ever before, helping erase the stigma or wearing them.  New hearing aids also perform better, which makes them more helpful to working people and others with active social lives.  New forms of surgery are enabling people with profound hearing loss to hear words, music, and other sounds that, until recently, they had no hope of hearing.   The ultimate goal is to find ways to cure hearing loss and, ideally, to prevent it.  The recent identification of mutations in many genes that predispose people to hearing loss was a significant step forward.  Experiments with gene therapy are under way to try to prevent hearing loss.  Meanwhile, there are many things you can do, now to preserve your hearing.  One is to protect your ears from loud noises.  Don’t blast the music on your headphones.  Use earplugs when operating leaf blowers, riding snowmobiles, and working with other noisy equipment.  Also, learn to recognize the signs of hearing loss and have your hearing  checked regularly.  Early detection and treatment is a proven way to help you make the most of the hearing you’ve got.     HOW LOUD IS SAFE? Protect your ears from sounds louder than 80 decibels (dB).         Decibels Sounds 20 Watch ticking 30 Whispering 40 Leaves rustling, refrigerator humming 50 Neighborhood street, average home 60 Dishwasher, normal conversation 70 Car, alarm clock, city traffic 80 Garbage disposal, noisy restaurant, vacuum cleaner, outboard motor 85 Factory, screaming child 90 Power lawn mower, highway driving in a convertible 100 Diesel truck, subway train (outside, not as a passenger), chain saw 120 Rock concert, propeller plane 130 Jet Plane (100 feet away), air-raid siren 140 Shotgun blast, explosion                                         Sounds of 80dB or less are safe for nearly all healthy adults, no matter how long you hear them.  Sounds of 85dB should be limited to no more than 8 hours a day, and 91dB to two hours for a healthy adult.  Limit the 100dB sounds to 15 minutes, and 120dB sounds to about 9 seconds.  Sounds in the 125-140dB range are loud enough to cause pain unless you protect your ears with earplugs.  The long-term effects of high noise levels for children are unknown; therefore, the thresholds cited here may be too high for them.   Reprinted from Protecting Your Ear (Special Supplement).  Report from Harvard Medical School, WHW-HEAR3                                                                         cad     Back Issues of Did You Know?