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Governor Huntsman, in conjunction with the Utah Speech Language and Hearing Association (USHA) would like to encourage parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of listening to loud levels of sound for extended periods of time. Hearing loss is the third most common health problem in the United States.
Of the 31 million Americans who have some degree of hearing loss, about 1/3 have been affected by noise. Exposure to noise occurs in the workplace, recreational settings and at home. The American Academy of Audiology reports that approximately 13% or 5 million young people between the ages of 6-19 show some signs of noise induced hearing loss.
Hearing is critical to children's safety and to the development of speech, listening, learning and social skills. Audiologists around the state were in the schools during the month of May educating kids about the dangers of listening to MP3 players, IPods and radios at high levels for long periods of time.
An individual with a noise induced hearing loss may not be aware of the loss but it can be detected by a hearing test by your local audiologist. There are several warning signs that could suggest a possible hearing loss due to noise exposure. These signs include: needing people to talk louder in order for you to understand them, not understanding what people say when they are two feet away from you, particularly muffled or dull sounds after leaving a noise environment or if you have ringing or pain in your ears especially after being exposed to loud noise.
USHA would like to make sure parents are educated about knowing the possible damage that can occur when kids continue to listen to loud levels of sound. Noise inducedhearing loss is 100% preventable and it is up to us to make sure we are doing whatever we can to protect our ears and our children's ears. There are three ways to preserve our hearing. These include: turning the volume down, walking away from noise or using hearing protection or ear plugs.
Rapper Ben Jackson wrote a song for the American Academy of Audiology called "Turn it to the Left". Its lyrics remind kids that they can dramatically reduce their risk of hearing loss by turning the volume down on iPods and other personal stereos. Nebo School Districts elementary schools were playing this song every Friday morning during the month of May to help promote good hearing health.
Let's all work on turning it to the left and protecting our ears from preventable hearing loss. We need to remember that good decisions on how we listen now will determine if we will be able to listen later.
Raquel Turner, USHA's ambassador for 2008-09 and a student of the Nebo School District, helps demonstrate IPod sound levels and warns students that they need to protect their hearing now. |
