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Noise Induced Hearing Loss |
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Symptoms
The following symptoms may go away minutes, hours or days after the exposure to noise ends.
• Feeling of pressure or fullness in the ears
• Speech seems unclear or distant
• A ringing sound in the ears, even in quiet places.
• Not hearing high-pitched sounds, like the singing of birds, or not understanding the speech of women and small children.
• If the damage goes on, hearing declines further, and lower pitched sounds, including men's voices, become hard to understand.
Noise is too loud if:
• You have to shout to be heard above the noise.
• You can't understand someone who is speaking to you from less than 2 feet away.
• A person standing near you can hear sounds from your stereo headset while it is on your head.
Prevention
• Reduce your exposure to noise especially if you work in noisy places.
• Develop the habit of wearing earplugs when you know you will be exposed to noise for a long time they can quiet up to 25 dB of sound.
• Avoid using several noisy machines at the same time e.g. television sets, stereos and headsets.
• Don't try to drown out unwanted noise with other sounds. For example, don't turn up the volume on your car radio or headset to drown out traffic noise or turn up the television volume while vacuuming.
• Have your hearing checked.
References:
American Academy of Family Physicians, "Hearing: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss," Web site: familydoctor.org, Created: September 2000, Updated: December 2005, Accessed: January 20, 2007.
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