Five Reasons Why People Lose Hearing Due To Noise

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that nearly 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous noise levels on their job.  And 14% of all hearing-aid wearers are younger than 60. (This percentage has doubled in the past five years.)

Why do so many people suffer from this potentially disabling disease?

1. People do not generally perceive overexposure to noise as a “clear and present danger.” There is no pain, discomfort, blood, or bruise. There is no obvious indicator of slow, cumulative, irreversible nerve damage in the inner ear.
2. There is insufficient time between various daily exposures to noisy environments. The ear has a built-in mechanism that allows repair of the daily temporary auditory damage caused by noise exposures. This repair mechanism generally requires 16 hours per day of “auditory rest” (quiet time) to recover.
   • A person may work in a noisy environment for eight hours per day, but our personal time is becoming increasingly noisy. Our ears are bombarded with more amplified loud music, motors, air conditioners, highway traffic, and power tools than ever before.
   • People tend to accept their noisy encounters as a way of life that doesn’t pose a real problem. They often recognize high noise exposures, but rationalize them as acceptable because the duration doesn’t seem long enough to cause damage.
   • People act as if loud noises associated with enjoyable activities are not as hazardous as workplace noise.

   The result is less time for recovery. The damage silently and slowly accumulates...and eventually becomes permanent.

3. The earliest losses occur in the frequencies where we do not notice the insult (in frequencies higher than used for human speech). These losses are detectable by audiometry tests, but people don’t recognize the need for this test. The damage eventually spreads to the speech frequencies and the person may notice their problem. But by the time the loss affects conversational speech, an extensive amount of irreversible damage has already been done.
4. There is a relative absence of formal noise education in the general public. In industry, workers are trained on the health effects of noise. Use of hearing protection is reinforced or required. In the general population, however, it is still necessary to establish the belief and awareness of a potential problem.
5. Inappropriate or no action is taken after discovery of significant shifts in hearing resulting from noise exposure. It is often several years after evidence of a shift before the need for corrective action is recognized. In other words, audiometry is an important first step in the detection of damage, but it is effective only if the results are acted upon by a competent professional.

The need for effective prevention is more important than ever before. There is no question that compliance with OSHA’s noise regulations has significantly influenced the industrial sector, but there are other contributors.

Awareness of this threat to hearing needs to be expanded to the greater public. One person’s music may well be another person’s noise. In the end, however, prolonged and repeated encounters with any loud noise eventually cause the same damage. Add it up over 24 hours a day if you really want to know how much damage is being done to a person’s hearing.

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