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The Baltimore Examiner
June 27, 2006
By: Karl B. Hille
Exploding a firecracker near your head could cause permanent hearing loss, but the Fourth of July festivities next week aren’t the only threat summer brings to hearing.
“Summer has lots and lots of noise issues related to it,” said Denise DeMonte, audiologist with The Hearing and Speech Agency, a nonprofit clinic, school and sign academy in Baltimore. “You’re out with your motorcycles, you’re mowing with your lawn mower, or just sitting by the pool listening to your iPod.”
In general, she said people engage in more loud outdoor activities during the summer.
A cherry bomb firecracker, for instance, puts out a 120 decibel crack. Spending just a few minutes blasting away in your backyard on the fourth can cause permanent hearing damage.
By comparison, spending two hours with a 100 decibel lawnmower is bad for your ears.
“The more you are around, and the louder the noise source, the greater the danger,” Dr. DeMonte said.
An estimated 31.5 million people report a hearing difficulty, or roughly 10 percent of the U.S. population, according to the not-for-profit Better Hearing Institute Web site. One in 14 people aged ages 29-40, or 7.4 percent, already have hearing loss.
There’s nothing to fear from public displays, however. You spend about 15 to 20 minutes listening to some particularly loud explosions, but most people are far enough away to remain safe.
Those who set them off, however, as well as professional lawn mowers and others, need to pay close attention to ear protection.
Most earplugs on the market protect equally well, though the more comfortable and versatile ear protection also tends to be more expensive.
“While those yellow plastic foam plugs will protect just as well, comfort can be an issue in how often you use them,” DeMonte said.
And if you don’t use them, they can’t help you.