Sound advice for life

POSTED: September 09, 2009

Sound advice for life

Learning how to protect your hearing for life was the message behind an interactive hearing awareness display coordinated by the corporate Health and Safety team for Hearing Awareness Week.

People discovered more about how hearing can be damaged at home and the way people can reduce their exposure, when they visited the stands in Central Park lobby last month.

The team demonstrated how to fit and wear ear plugs and ear muffs for use with noisy tasks and provided advice about noise sources outside work, such as leaf blowers, whipper-snippers, lawn mowers and loud music.

In Australia, hazardous sound is defined as noise exceeding 85 decibels over an eight-hour exposure period and, as a general rule of thumb, if you have to shout in order to be heard 1 metre away, the noise levels are probably greater than 85 decibels.

As technology has improved over the years the ease of carrying personal music players and the increased battery life has led to extended listening times. This means that levels of sound that may not have been a risk in the past are of concern now because we listen to them for much longer.

“The longer we listen, the more we become used to a certain volume and we may choose to increase the volume as listening time continues,” explained corporate health specialist Elaine Lindars.

“We know this is a real problem for the younger generation as schoolchildren in WA admit to using iPods and other devices for long periods of time and some have even said they are falling asleep at night listening to them.

“Noise doesn’t have to be uncomfortably loud or even painful to be damaging - it’s about the length of time you are exposed to excessive noise. Whether that noise is music or from a mower; your exposure accumulates over the day.

“If you’re going to listen to or do something very loud, then make sure you give your ears a rest for the next 18 hours.”

Staff and visitors to the hearing awareness displays were invited to check the volume of their iPod using an adapted sound level meter, on loan from the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists - and the only one of its kind in Western Australia.

“This equipment allows us to assess people’s potential risk of permanent hearing loss, based upon the song tested at the time, the length of time the individual listens during the day and any other loud activities carried out,” Elaine said.

“We alerted some people to the potential risks associated with how loud their music was for the time they listened to it - generally though the results of the iPod volume checks were good.”

View the DVD Listen to the warnings on the Pilbara Health website (insert last month’s hyperlink) to learn more about hearing loss and if you’re concerned about your hearing, speak to your doctor or local health advisor.

Pilbara Health

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Sound advice for life

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