Professor promotes International Noise Awareness Day ANN ARBOR—Do you find yourself asking people to repeat themselves? Does your family ask you to turn the TV down? Or, do people tell you that you’re talking too loud? If so, you could have noise-induced hearing loss.

Helen Keller once said, “Deafness is worse than blindness.” She felt she could compensate for her lack of eyesight by learning Braille, but there was no getting around her inability to hear. That’s why one University of Michigan researcher feels it’s so important for people to protect themselves from loud noises. Sally Lusk, School of Nursing professor, says, “Noise-induced hearing loss is a permanent disability. Hearing aids don’t restore hearing. And, what people don’t understand is this disability is 100 percent preventable.”

Lusk hopes people will listen up on April 25, International Noise Awareness Day. More than 20 million people in the United States have some type of hearing impairment. Lusk says at least half of those cases are probably due to noise exposure. Often the biggest contributor to noise is your job.

For many workers the tools of their trade are damaging their hearing. The number of noise-induced hearing loss cases is most reported in construction, manufacturing, agricultural, airline and lawn service industries. These employees are exposed to loud and lasting noise on a regular basis. Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common occupational diseases and the second most self-reported occupational illness or injury. The U-M and National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders finds:

•44 percent of carpenters and 48 percent of plumbers reported a perceived hearing loss.

•90 percent of coal miners will have hearing impairment by age 52 (compared with 9 percent of the general population).

•70 percent of male, metal/nonmetal miners will experience hearing impairment by age 60.

The most startling statistic, however, is that all of these noise-induced hearing loss cases could have been avoided with proper protection. Workers have a variety of earplugs and muffs to choose from but despite the availability, U-M studies find they only wear the protective gear 18 percent to 71 percent of the time they are needed.

In many jobs, employees are required to wear hearing protection. However, even if they follow the standards set by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Organization), eight out of 100 employees will still experience hearing loss.” Lusk says the focus should be on getting manufacturers to produce quieter equipment, but when that fails, workers need to be helped to use hearing protection 100 percent of the time.

A less noisy work environment might be healthier overall. Studies show exposure to noise also effects blood pressure, heart disease, stress, illness/absence, depression, anxiety, job satisfaction and an increase in accidents.

Lusk has developed a series of training programs to increase the awareness of noise-induced hearing loss and get more workers to wear protective gear. She is currently refining an interactive, multimedia program tailored to the individual employee. This computer program is used following the worker’s annual hearing test—the computer records the responses and gives feedback based on the worker’s needs. Lusk says, “The end result is to prevent hearing loss due to noise. We hope that by making workers more aware of the dangers of noise at work, and at home and at play, it will cause them to protect themselves.”

EDITORS: If you would like more information or would like to find out more about Lusk’s research, contact Lesley Harding at (248) 360-9415 or lionles@aol.com

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