[Ohio-talk] Fw: Headphone use can steal one's hearing

[Dr. Smith]

fyi

jw

Dr. J. Webster Smith
President National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
P.O.BOX 458 Athens, Ohio, 45701-0458
Phone Number - 740-592-6326 
"Changing What it Means to be Blind"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: COHEAR at aol.com 
To: jwsmithnfb at verizon.net 
Cc: pmd at pobox.com 
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 9:41 AM
Subject: Headphone use can steal one's hearing


Hi JW and Paul



I believe Deborah will be present at your meeting on October 31. This article should be available for your members. Always remember to protect your remaining precious hearing. Have your hearing tested by a professional audiologist and included in your medical exam or perhaps if you are not hearing as well as you would like too. Looking forward to meeting you both again. 



Hermine Willey

 cohear at aol.com



Deborah Kendrick commentary: Headphone use can steal one's hearing

Sunday,  October 11, 2009 The Columbus Dispatch

By Deborah Kendrick

 



A random memory that has been with me for some 20 years is that of a little girl who occasionally played with my children. Marie, I'll call her, was a charming enough kid -- animated and funny -- but extremely loud. You could hear her voice throughout the house when she came to play, and it was, frankly, pretty irritating. 

Then one day she showed up with headphones on her head, music blaring so loudly that I could easily identify the song from across the room. That's why she's so loud, I thought, and if she keeps it up, she'll be reading lips as an adult.

Of course, reading lips is an overrated solution to lost hearing. Only 30 percent of our language can be seen on the lips, and those who are good at it have typically spent years practicing. The point is that excessive noise is as damaging to our ears as smoking to our lungs, and too many of us don't consider the seriousness of that damage until it has already been done.

An estimated 10 million Americans have noise-induced hearing loss. Sound pressure on our ears is measured in decibels -- the louder the noise, the higher the number of decibels -- and prolonged exposure to any sound greater than 85 decibels can cause irreversible damage to our ears. 


So what does 85 decibels sound like? A hair dryer measures at around 90 decibels. A leaf blower, lawn mower and chain saw each emits roughly 110. An ambulance siren or jackhammer measures at about 120 decibels, and an iPod at maximum volume, 130.
The duration of noise figures into the equation, too, of course. In other words, if you just hear an ambulance passing by or you walk past a construction crew, the excessive noise is only attacking your ears for a few minutes. Although a single excessively loud noise (say, a gunshot) can damage hearing, most of us can think in terms of the duration of commonplace sounds and protect our ears effectively.

I listen to an MP3 player through headphones just about every day, so I'd probably be the last to advocate for abstinence in this department. The key is in moderating the volume level of such a player -- keeping it at two-thirds capacity, for example -- and monitoring the volume level "enjoyed" by children and teenagers.

If 100-plus decibel noise is unavoidable because you work in manufacturing, construction or aviation, protect your ears. Earplugs -- the foam kind that fill the ear canal -- can go a long way toward protecting your hearing at a rock concert and on a noisy work site.

There are plenty of other causes for hearing loss -- genetics, aging, infection and disease -- but noise pollution is one factor where we actually can exercise some control. If you don't happen to have a device in your pocket for measuring decibels every day, here's a simple rule offered by audiologists: If you have to speak above normal conversation to be heard, then the background noise -- television, music, machinery -- is too loud!

October is national Audiology Awareness and Protect Your Hearing Month. Hearing loss is a serious, albeit invisible, disability that causes millions of people to feel isolated, excluded and sometimes depressed. I haven't seen Marie since she was that 6-year-old child with the blaring music on her head, but I hope the practice ceased before it was too late and that, wherever she is, she can hear the 20-decibel whispers of her own child someday.

Deborah Kendrick is a Cincinnati writer and advocate for people with disabilities.

dkkendrick at earthlink.net 
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