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Writer's pictureDr. Steven Taddei

Episode 1: Springtime Noise Exposure

The Hearing Now Podcast

Episode 1: Springtime Noise Exposure

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Note: The Hearing Now Podcast is produced for your listening pleasure. However, transcripts are generated for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing as well. Errors may occur in the transcription process so we recommend listening along with the corresponding audio if possible.


[THEME MUSIC]


Thanks for tuning-in to The Hearing Now Podcast, where we take an in-depth look at sound, our ears, and your overall hearing health. Welcome to the show!


Hello everyone and welcome to The Hearing Now Podcast. My name is Steven and in this episode we are going to be talking about hearing protection and noise exposure as it is now Spring. As Springtime rolls around we are out in the yards working. We might be doing some maintenance around their houses, woodworking, and certainly some Spring cleaning which can involve some loud vacuums or other kinds of machinery. Believe it or not those sounds can over time with prolonged exposure put you at a greater risk for hearing loss.


So we're going to cover a few different topics today and to start off with I wanted to review what is too loud. How can I tell whether I'm protecting myself or not? There are several different organizations that we generally follow for guidelines such as OSHA, the EPA, and NOISH. All of these groups give us different standards for what is a healthy noise exposure. A really nice way you can think about it is to consider a child. Kids do not have a lot of these stigmas that we have as adults. Many times you will notice kids covering their ears in situations where an adult will not cover their ears. So use it as a cue, if it's something that you think a kid might be covering their ears for chances are it's likely too loud for you as well.


Many of us have been exposed to sounds that were way too loud for us. I'm sure you remember that you might have a little bit of ringing in your ears, there might be kind of a fuzzy feeling after that exposure, if you went to a concert afterwards they may feel like there's cotton in your ears. May it doesn't quite sound as full and rich as it did before you started. Then you take a nap, go to sleep, and the next day hopefully your hearing is back to normal. That is what we're going to try and actually minimize or reduce the chances of. Believe it or not, though your hearing has returned to “normal”, you did sustain an injury to your hearing system. Over time that's what will cause hearing loss.


There are many things that can cause hearing loss. It can be something that is genetic, something that is caused by certain medications like cancer treatments, and other medical issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure. These have been shown to affect your hearing system just because it is such a sensitive organ to changes in blood flow. Another thing that can cause hearing loss is noise exposure. Hearing loss doesn't just mean that you say “huh” or “what”. It goes far beyond just what the observer might see. It’s not just that a person needs the volume turned up a little bit more. It actually comes down to the fidelity of our hearing system.


What I mean by fidelity is imagine if you're sitting and watching TV. You have a nice big 50 inch TV and everything is crystal clear and bright. Imagine if someone started just taking a marker and kind of blocking out certain areas on that screen. As if they're removing pixels. It's not just that the screen is dimmer, it’s that you're missing certain information. Hearing loss is even more complex than this example, but at least it sets the stage that hearing loss is not just that things are quieter. Information is actually missing. There are many other distortions within our hearing system that are associated with hearing loss. For example, the most common distortion is tinnitus which is some perception of noise that is not occurring in the environment. This could be a ringing, clicking, buzzing, some people even hear music. So if your hearing is normal that's fantastic, you should do what you can to keep it that way as long as possible. If you already have hearing loss, even more so you need to protect your hearing and make sure that you're not doing anything further to damage it. Hearing loss is like dentistry and our teeth, it's all about preservation of what we have. It’s about slowing the deterioration.


So what can we do in this case? What can we do to help protect our hearing from noise-induced hearing loss? It is a two-sided coin, it has to do with how long you are exposed and how loud the exposure was. The analogy for this is sun exposure. Think of the sun if you were going to the beach in California on a bright sunny day. You are going to be there for several hours. You will need to use high SPF and you'll need to likely reapply several times to make sure that you are protecting your skin from the sun. Otherwise, you’ll have sunburn and over time that can lead to other issues like skin cancer. However, if you're going from your car to a building, chances are you really don't need to worry about protection. So again, the key is how long are you going to be exposed to the sun and it is the same concept with noise-induced hearing loss and injury to our hearing system.


So to recap, the two main things we need to do are (1) limit our exposure to loud sounds and (2) to try and make sure that the levels of those exposures aren't hazardous. For example, if you have a several acre lawn there are a couple different approaches you could take. You could switch to an electric mower which is unlikely, you could wear hearing protection, or the third case you could just break it up so that you're not exposed for several hours to that loud constant noise.


Let's bring it back to this concept of what is too loud. We will not get into the complexity of all those different organizations that we mentioned. However, the two main ones are OSHA which stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the other main one is NIOSH which stands for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. To give you a really quick example of the differences between them, OSHA states that you can be exposed to 100 decibel noise for up to two hours without really needing to worry about hearing damage. However, NIOSH indicates that you only have 15 minutes at a hundred decibels. If you’re standing next to a very loud lawn mower the levels can reach close to that. It is much better to follow the NIOSH regulations because it will offer more protection to a broader range of people. If you have a smartphone there is a great app by NIOSH and it's called NIOSH SLM. Within this app there are some great references that talk about what is too loud. It also gives you a sound level meter that will estimate how loud the environment is, what the peak level is, and how long you can be exposed to that level without injuring your hearing system. So it is a really great tool for you. It's free and you can install it on your phone. So it’s always there as a reference, to double-check what you are being exposed to. For disclaimer, there will be lots of different numbers that are changing on the screen. You mainly need to watch out for 85 decibels. Make sure that you are not exceeding that 85 decibel level, otherwise you are exposing your hearing system to a potentially hazardous level over time. If it does exceed the 85 decibel threshold, limit your exposure or look into hearing protection. This process isn't much of an imposition and it takes less than a minute to install the software. Then you always have this tool at your disposal.


It's important to understand that many of the tools we use - whether it be lawnmowers, vacuums, power tools, saws, even hair dryers - they can very quickly exceed hazardous thresholds. It all depends on how close you are to the source. Even the typical drill that you plug into the wall will approach 90 decibels depending on the environment and the manufacturer. As we’ve already discussed, it's much more complex than “oh you used a drill and had exposure to a 90 decibels sound? Now you have hearing loss.” Remember that sun exposure analogy. It depends on how loud the sound was and how long you were exposed. It's all about limiting your exposures. If you know you're going to be doing a full day's work where you mow the lawn, then you use a table saw, then a drill you will be exposed to hazardous levels. That is, if you don't wear proper hearing protection.


So let's get to what we can actually do about this. We understand what is a dangerous level and we have an app that will easily give insights. So let’s look at hearing protection. There are many different styles of hearing protection based on the type of exposure. This is where many people get it wrong and it's not their fault. It just comes down to a lack of understanding. Let me give you an example. When you go to the beach you wear sunglasses to help protect your eyes from the Sun. However, it would be really goofy for you to wear a welding mask when out suntanning. Obviously a welding mask is used to protect your eyes from the extremely bright lights while welding. Another example would be wearing safety glasses to help you read. With our vision system we have glasses that help protect you from debris getting in your eyes, we have glasses that help with glare, glasses that will help with bright lights, and extreme bright lights like welding masks. It's very similar with hearing protection where we have different protection devices that will help in different situations. We have some to help us hear better with music, others to reduce industry noise, other devices that will help keep moisture out of her ears. So there's quite an array of devices and it's important to understand and make sure that you’re using the right ones.


It’s also important that you’re wearing them properly. A great example are the common industry rolly-foamy ones. They're little foam cylinders that you squish and stick in your ears. Those work very well for industrial noise, if you have them inserted properly. That is a very big problem as not many people get them inserted properly.fI they're not in properly, they're not offering the protection that they're supposed to. Earmuffs are a great solution because they're cheap and easy to get on and off properly. When you work on a project you don't want to be fussing around with foam pieces, having to squish them up, stick them in your ears properly, and then wait for them to expand. If there's any type of barrier like that what I find is people just don’t wear them. However, if you have earmuffs it’s easy to put them over your ears and you're ready to go. We're not going to get into it on this episode, but keep in mind that there are other plugs for specific things like music.


It comes down to the importance of fit and if they're not in your ears right they're not going to be offering you the proper protection. My recommendation would be to use earmuffs as they’re very comfortable, they offer great protection, and they're extremely cheap. Many of them even offer Bluetooth streaming options. That way you can connect your phone to your earmuffs and stream music or shows.


Another great solution would be custom hearing devices. These are very comfortable offering fantastic protection and sound quality. The downside of these, if you want to call it that, is their cost. They’re more expensive. They also require you to visit an audiologist to have impressions taken. That would be a great time to get your hearing tested and talk about your exposures. You can also get really hearing tests to make sure your hearing protection is working for you. The main benefit of the custom devices is the sound quality. They are made specifically for the shape of your ear canals so fit is excellent. They also offer different filters with different levels of attenuation. For example, different filters can be used from listening to music versus using a firearm. It’s very important that you get routine hearing tests. We commonly don't get our hearing checked unless we're running into issues, such as tinnitus, or a family member tells us to go. Regular hearing tests will double check your hearing protection devices to see if they’re working, e.g.are you offering yourself enough protection, are they being worn properly. First, start with a baseline test. Your audiologist will be able to talk to you about all of these different hearing protection devices. For the average person you should get your hearing tested every one to two years. If you are someone who is exposed to noise on a regular basis, it's not a bad idea to get it tested annually or bi-annually.


So to wrap things up, as Spring rolls around be aware of the different noises that you're exposed to. You can download the NIOSH SLM app and lookout for anything that surpasses that 85 decibel threshold. Don't forget to get yourself earplugs so you can protect yourself if you’re exposed to levels above that threshold. Lastly, don't forget to get your hearing tested on a regular basis by an audiologist. Hearing loss is generally something that happened very slowly. It's better to catch it before it starts significantly affecting your quality of life and your family. If you're running into any issues with pain, pressure, dizziness, sudden changes in your hearing, and or ringing in your ears, call your primary care physician. Hopefully you found this helpful, if you have any questions always let us know. Have a great summer.


[THEME MUSIC]


Thank you for listening to The Hearing Now Podcast and stay tuned for our next episode. Have questions or ideas for new content? Drop us a line at thehearingnowpodcast@gmail.com.


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