MANY PROTECTED INFORMATION AND SITES HAVE BEEN USED IN PREPARATION OF THIS WEB SITE. DUE TO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION LAW COPYING OR DOWNLOADING ANY BLANK FORM OR INFORMATION OR CALCULATION FROM THIS WEBSITE IS NOT PERMITTED UNLESS THE FORM OR INFORMATION OR CALCULATION IS FOR PATIENT AND USED IMMEDIATELY AFTER DOWNLOADING. ANY UNUSED DOWNLOADS SHOULD BE DELETED, NOT TO BE MODIFIED, AND SAVED IN COMPUTER IN ANY FORM.
Where Is the Noise?
Protect Your Child’s Hearing This School Year
Every autumn, kids head back to school--and that means noise! Schools are filled with the sounds of packed hallways and cafeterias, band practices, and sporting events. Noise levels in these settings can be loud enough to permanently damage your children’s hearing.
Protect your children’s ears by adding these steps to your family’s back-to-school checklist:
Last Updated Date: August 1, 2018
Read More
Every autumn, kids head back to school--and that means noise! Schools are filled with the sounds of packed hallways and cafeterias, band practices, and sporting events. Noise levels in these settings can be loud enough to permanently damage your children’s hearing.
Protect your children’s ears by adding these steps to your family’s back-to-school checklist:
- Give your children earplugs or earmuffs to carry in their backpacks.Make it easy for your kids to protect their hearing in situations and places that are too loud. Earplugs are small and easy to pack; earmuffs are fun to decorate and easy to use! Protect your child’s hearing.
- Teach your children how their ears work. Use this animated video from the NIDCD to show your children how sound makes its way through the ear and to the brain, where it can be interpreted.
- Schedule a hearing test for your children. Having good hearing is crucial for school-aged children. Children must be able to hear their teachers, join in conversations, and hear cars when crossing the streets. Make sure your children are hearing all that they should be!
- Raise awareness of noise-induced hearing loss. Chat with your children’s teachers about noise-induced hearing loss and the importance of protecting young ears, and share this fun back-to-school checklist image with your friends and fellow parents. You might even suggest that teachers use downloadable, online tools (like a sound meter) to monitor noise levels in the classroom.
- Download a sound-meter app on your phone or your children’s phone, and test activities like their bus ride to school or school sports events! You can play a decibel level guessing game or inspire your children to create a science project about decibel levels and noise pollution.
- Download or order Noisy Planet's free, redesigned bookmark. Your children can have noise-level information on hand wherever they go with this conveniently sized bookmark.
Last Updated Date: August 1, 2018
Read More
Put a Plug in the Noise
Teach Tweens to Protect Themselves Against Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Tips for Teaching Kids about Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
What Is Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?
Science of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
It’s a Noisy Planet. Protect Their Hearing.® is a national public education campaign aimed at preteens (children ages 8 to 12), their parents, and other educators with the goal of increasing awareness of the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.
The science-based program was developed by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Research shows that parents and caregivers are the primary influence on this age group. With Noisy Planet tools and information, parents and other adults can encourage children to adopt healthy hearing habits before and during the time that they develop listening, leisure, and working habits. Noisy Planet’s three key preventions messages are:
Fast Facts
Hearing Loss Caused by Loud Sounds
Risk Factors
How Hearing Loss Happens
To understand how loud noises can damage our hearing, we have to understand how we hear. Hearing depends on a series of complex steps that change sound waves in the air into electrical signals. The auditory nerve then carries these signals to the brain for us to understand. Learn how sounds make their way from the source to your brain with this videoand check out the How We Hear fact sheet.
Noise-induced hearing loss happens when tiny hair-like structures (stereocilia) that sit on top of hair cells in the inner ear are damaged by noises that are too loud and/or last for too long. When stereocilia are damaged, the hair cells can’t send information about the sound to the brain. This leads to noise-induced hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is permanent.
Additional Quick Statistics on Hearing, Ear Infections, and Deafness can be found on the NIDCD website.
Sources
Last Updated Date: December 27, 2017
Read More
It’s a Noisy Planet. Protect Their Hearing.® is a national public education campaign aimed at preteens (children ages 8 to 12), their parents, and other educators with the goal of increasing awareness of the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.
The science-based program was developed by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Research shows that parents and caregivers are the primary influence on this age group. With Noisy Planet tools and information, parents and other adults can encourage children to adopt healthy hearing habits before and during the time that they develop listening, leisure, and working habits. Noisy Planet’s three key preventions messages are:
Fast Facts
- Analysis from a nationally representative health interview and examination survey found that nearly one in four (24 percent) of U.S. adults aged 20 to 69 years has features of his or her hearing test in one or both ears that suggest noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).1
- One in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears.2
- 100% Preventable. We can help our children avoid hearing loss caused by noise.
- 85 Decibels. Noise at this level and beyond for a prolonged period of time puts you at risk for hearing loss.
Hearing Loss Caused by Loud Sounds
- Symptoms of hearing loss from noise increase gradually. Over time, the sounds a person hears may become unclear, making it hard to understand what people are saying. Someone with hearing loss caused by noise may not even be aware of the loss.
- Hearing tests can uncover hearing loss caused by noise.
Risk Factors
- Noise-induced hearing loss is related to:
- How loud the sound is (the decibel level),
- The amount of time you are exposed to the sound, and
- How far away you are from the sound.
- Hearing loss from noise is related to a person's genes. Some people are more likely than others to harm their hearing when they listen to certain sounds. Scientists are working to figure out which people are more at risk for this type of hearing loss.
- You may not realize it, but some common activities that children participate in can reach potentially damaging noise levels: playing band instruments; listening to music or watching television set at high volumes; attending concerts and movies; playing with loud toys; and riding off-road vehicles and snowmobiles.
How Hearing Loss Happens
To understand how loud noises can damage our hearing, we have to understand how we hear. Hearing depends on a series of complex steps that change sound waves in the air into electrical signals. The auditory nerve then carries these signals to the brain for us to understand. Learn how sounds make their way from the source to your brain with this videoand check out the How We Hear fact sheet.
Noise-induced hearing loss happens when tiny hair-like structures (stereocilia) that sit on top of hair cells in the inner ear are damaged by noises that are too loud and/or last for too long. When stereocilia are damaged, the hair cells can’t send information about the sound to the brain. This leads to noise-induced hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is permanent.
Additional Quick Statistics on Hearing, Ear Infections, and Deafness can be found on the NIDCD website.
Sources
- Carroll YI, Eichwald J, Scinicariello F, et al. Vital Signs: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Among Adults—United States 2011–2012. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:139–144.
- Lin FR, Niparko JK, Ferrucci L. Hearing loss prevalence in the United States. [Letter] Arch Intern Med. 2011 Nov 14; 171(20): 1851–1852.
Last Updated Date: December 27, 2017
Read More