Prevent Hearing Loss: Always Wear Ear Protection While Shooting

Institute: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

WISE EARS!, NIDCD's national campaign to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, has been focusing its attention on shooter safety by instructing hunters and shooters to avoid noise-induced hearing loss by wearing ear protection. WISE EARS! participated in the 2002 Outdoor Writers Association of America conference to encourage outdoor writers to cover the topic of noise-induced hearing loss and produced a one-page flier on prevention of noise-induced hearing loss that will appear in the 2003 Hunter Handbook. The annual publication is distributed to hunting and shooting instructors for classroom use.

One of the most serious threats to hearing is hunting or target shooting. The firing of a shotgun at close range and without ear protection can permanently damage hearing in an instant. Yet an April 2000 study of hunters and shooters in Wisconsin found that 38 percent of target shooters and 95 percent of hunters reported never wearing hearing protection over a year's time.

Next steps:
Is there a place on the NIDCD web site about shooter safety?

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