Joel
B. Lown
University of Tennessee Extension
It's
summer. Your ears are being attacked by sound from tractors,
mowers, leaf blowers, power tools, chainsaws, chippers, string
trimmers, car radios, stereo headphones and, possibly, snoring
relatives!
Some
of this ruckus may be causing permanent damage. Ten years
from now, you may have the opportunity to ask people to repeat
what they just said, or drift off to sleep with "ringing"
in your ears. Then you'll care about hearing loss. Then it
will be too late.
Sound
is measured in decibels (dB). Every six decibels doubles the
volume - 106 dB is twice as loud as 100 dB. You can damage
your hearing if you listen to 90 dB for over eight hours a
day, 100 dB for over two hours, or 110 dB for over 30 minutes.
Unfortunately,
many of the tools we use produce more noise than our ears
can tolerate safely for the length of time we need to use
them. A chainsaw, for example, may produce 115 dB, but we
may need to use it for more than the recommended 15 minutes.
The
best solutions to noise are to reduce the volume or limit
your exposure time. If you can't do either of these, then
wear hearing protection. Two excellent styles of hearing protection
are popular now - soft foam plugs that fit in your ears, and
muffs worn over your ears. Foam plugs are inexpensive (as
little as 10 cents a pair if you buy enough for the whole
neighborhood), comfortable, and very effective (cutting the
sound level almost 30 dB). Muffs are ideal for times when
you are exposed to dangerous noise repeatedly for short periods,
since you can easily put them on and take them off. They cost
as little as ten dollars and block from 20 to 30 dB.
Hearing
protection makes noisy jobs a lot more comfortable and reduces
fatigue and irritability. It actually allows you to monitor
a machine better, since your brain is not being overwhelmed
by all the excess noise.
Folks
who already have some hearing loss need to use hearing protection
just as much as those with "perfect" hearing. You never "get
used to" loud noise. The sounds may not seem as loud now as
they did 20 years ago, but they are still pounding on the
mechanisms of the ear just as hard and causing further hearing
loss.
One
final warning. Never use stereo headphones when operating
loud equipment. You are simply compounding the problem - accelerating
your hearing loss by adding noise on top of noise.
Disclaimer
and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not represent
NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears by permission
of the author and/or copyright holder. More
NASD Review: 04/2002
This
news release was distributed by the University of Tennessee
Agricultural Extension Service, Knoxville, Tennessee 37901.
Publication date: July 1993.
Joel
B. Lown, Agricultural Safety Specialist, Agricultural Engineering
Department, University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension
Service, Knoxville, Tennessee 37901.
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