Teens: Enjoy, Protect the Best Ears of Your Life : Part 2

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Page 2 of 2)

Stuffing cotton in your ears will not do the trick. Good hearing protection is available with a number of devices, the most common and least expensive of which are earplugs.

Earplugs are available at most drug, hardware, music, and sporting goods stores, and custom-made plugs are available through an audiologist.

Made of foam rubber or plastic, earplugs come with a noise reduction rating on the label established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which regulates hearing safety in the workplace, recommends using earplugs with a rating twice as strong as you need to ensure protection.

For instance, if you're going to be mowing the lawn (90 decibels), you'd need to reduce the noise by about 15 decibels to be in a safe range, so buy earplugs with a 30-decibel rating.

For a rock concert (110 decibels), you'd need 45-decibel plugs. These are usually only available from an audiologist. If you can't get them, buy the strongest rating available in a drugstore (about 30 decibels). The most important thing is that you wear something to block out the sound.

"Most people say that hearing protection devices distort sound," says John Steelnack, an industrial hygienist with OSHA. "They really don't," he says. "They just reduce the intensity."

For those who have already suffered damage, hearing aids can help, but they still cannot restore normal hearing.

People are rarely as satisfied with their hearing aids as with their eyeglasses because many older hearing aids can't clarify sounds. Newer hearing aids are better at picking up certain sound frequencies, screening out much unwanted background noise.

"Basically, a hearing aid is an audio amplifier that provides amplification in the frequency range where the patient has the greatest hearing loss," says Harry Sauberman, chief of the ear, nose and throat division at FDA's Office of Device Evaluation.

"One of the concerns about hearing aids is that many of them amplify ambient [background] noise. That may be the reason people leave them on the dresser. They just don't find them desirable."

Sound Advice

Rock musician Peck cherishes what's left of her hearing. To educate others about noise-induced hearing loss, she helped establish a nonprofit organization called HEAR, for Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers, with the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in San Francisco.

HEAR has garnered a lot of publicity and support in the music industry, including a $10,000 donation from musician Pete Townsend of The Who, who also has hearing loss.

HEAR sponsors free hearing screening in the San Francisco Bay area and has a 24-hour hot line for information about noise-induced hearing loss. For more information, write HEAR at P.O. Box 460847, San Francisco, CA 94146.

For a free pair of 30-decibel earplugs, write to the "Hearing Is Priceless" Program of the House Ear Institute, 2100 West 3rd St., Fifth Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90057.

While Peck doesn't play in a band anymore, she is still a rock music fan. However, now when she goes to concerts, she wears custom-made earplugs. Some are decorated with dangling earring-like ornaments.

She encourages other music fans to take precautions as well. "We're not against music, we're not anti-rock 'n' roll," says Peck. "I just want them to protect their hearing."

A Range of Noises

Here, listed by category, are an assortment of noises and their decibel levels:

Painful

140 — firearms, air raid siren
130 — jackhammer
120 — jet plane takeoff

Extremely Loud

110 — rock music
100 — snowmobile, chainsaw
90 — lawnmower

Very Loud

80 — alarm clock
70 — busy traffic, vacuum cleaner
60 — conversation, dishwasher

Moderate

50 — moderate rainfall
40 — quiet room

Faint

30 — whisper

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.