In honor of Better Speech and Hearing month, I felt it appropriate to discuss something that everyone faces on a daily basis – noise. Noise can range from laughter to crying, to an annoying “drip, drip, drip” of the faucet to a soothing symphony. Noise was created to add dimension and bring color to life.

Although noise can enhance our lives, too much noise can also cause us to lose our hearing. Prolonged exposure to noises and/or brief exposure to intensely loud noises increases the likelihood of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). The NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) Web site states “NIHL is caused by exposure to sound levels or durations that damage the hair cells of the cochlea. Initially, the noise exposure may cause a temporary threshold shift – or a decrease in hearing sensitivity that typically returns to its former level within a few minutes to a few hours. Repeated exposures lead to a permanent threshold shift, which is an irreversible sensorineural hearing loss.”

NIHL is tremendously impacting the younger generations and the impact appears to only be increasing. A study completed in 2001 by Niskar et al. revealed “the incidence ofNIHL among children and adolescents in the United States hasbeen reported to be 12.5 percent.” Although this appears to be a low percentage, when you stop and think that this data are taken from children and adolescents, it makes you wonder what their hearing will be like in their early 20s, mid 30s, and so forth. When you put it into numbers, we're talking millions of children and adolescents. As medical advances are prolonging the average American life, more and more people are faced with this dilemma. We need to take action now to ward off the long-term effects.

Even as I say this, I recognize that I need to follow my own advice. I served on the worship team at my church for two years and stood directly in front of the drums. We weren't given any earplugs or headphones; we just turned the monitors up louder to help drown out the drums. As result, I experience tinnitus several times a week and have a mild NIHL. Although this may be a small part of my job as a speech-language pathologist, I have to turn the volume up when testing audiometers for hearing screenings. Although it's a little embarrassing to admit that I was negligent and became party to my own NIHL, I also realize that many of us have hobbies that are impacting our hearing, too.

Think about all the wonderful things Alaska is known for: moose, bear, birds, etc. One of the biggest draws to this great state is all the game you can hunt. Shotguns produce painfully loud explosions, and how many of us are wearing ear protection? What about riding four-wheelers or snow machines and motorcycles, listening to loud music for long periods of time, or using mixers and blenders when cooking? It may seem that I am stretching the boundaries of reason, but each and everything we do affects our ability to hear. Not a single one of these hobbies is bad, but not wearing the proper protection, however, is bad. I'm not here to give a lecture, but to emphasize the importance of having and using ear protection. It's as vital to your health as brushing your teeth, putting lotion on dry skin or using medication to clear an infection. There are many resources available that provide useful information to tolerable volume levels and the appropriate amount of exposure time, including: http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html.

Let this Better Speech and Hearing month jumpstart a commitment to yourself to protect the hearing you have now and your ability to hear in the future.

Works Cited

Fligor, B.J. (2009). Risk for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss from Use of Portable Media Players: A Summary of Evidence Through 2008. Perspectives on Audiology, 5 10-20.

Meinke, D., & Dice, N (1985). Supplement: Comparison of Audiometric Screening Criteria for the Identification of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Adolescents. American Journal of Audiology, 16, S190-S202.

Niskar, A. S., Kieszak, S. M., Holmes, A., Esteban, E., Rubin, C., & Brody, D. J. (2001). Estimated prevalence of noise-induced hearing thresholds shifts among children 6 to 19 years of age: The third national health and nutrition examination survey, 1988-1994, United States. Pediatrics, 108, 40-43.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/chap2.html. Retrieved May 19, 2009.

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html. Retrieved May 19, 2009.

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Melody Martin, M.Ed., CCC-SLP is a speech therapist at All For Kids Pediatric Therapy.

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