From hairdryers to all-terrain vehicles, noise-induced hearing loss can spring from unexpected places.
“We need to remember that hearing loss is preventable, and we can do something about it,” emphasized Charlotte Halverson, AgriSafe Network health coach and former clinical director. AgriSafe is a national educational nonprofit that teaches healthcare professionals, farmers and ranchers about important agricultural health and safety topics.
With constant exposure to loud machinery, equipment and livestock, agriculture is listed in the top three occupations that cause hearing loss.
“I grew up on a farm, and we never thought about wearing hearing protection,” Halverson recalled. “We didn’t know what we didn’t know.”
She now lives with relentless ringing and chirping in her ears—a symptom of noise-induced hearing loss. It also can affect blood pressure and pulse rate, and lead to depression, isolation, sleep disruptions and accidents.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration defines any noise level of 85 decibels or greater as dangerous.
“If you have to raise your voice to be heard by someone an armslength away from you, you’re already experiencing hearing loss,” Halverson cautioned.
The amount of hearing loss from noise exposure depends on the decibel level of the noise and the duration of exposure.
One minute with a chainsaw—reaching 120 dBA—“will put you in trouble,” she noted.
Long exposures to lower noise intensities can still cause significant hearing loss—like power tools, ATVs, pressure washers, leaf blowers or push mowers.
“Hairdryers run at around 90 decibels,” Halverson noted. “You don’t think about that stuff. You can see why hairstylists sometimes start losing their hearing.”
She recommends downloading the free NIOSH Sound Level Meter app to help measure noise intensity.
Consumers can choose from a wide variety of protective canal caps, earplugs and earmuffs.
When selecting the appropriate hearing protection, it’s important to consider AgriSafe’s “5 C’s of Hearing Protection”:
Comfort is key to consistent use.
Compatibility with other safety equipment.
Convenience to use or access in environments with intermittent noise.
Communication frequency and the need to hear speech.
Cost and affordability.
It’s crucial to check the hearing protection device’s Noise Reduction Rating, stamped as “NRR” on the label, and calculate the level of noise protection outside of a perfect factory setting:
Subtract 7dB from the NRR.
Divide that number by two.
Subtract that number from the measured average noise of the task or machine.
Aim for just enough noise reduction to bring exposure down to 75-85 dBA.
Wearing two types of protection won’t double your protection, but offers around five extra decibels of noise reduction.
“Unfortunately, once we start hearing ringing and buzzing in our ears, we are already experiencing significant hearing loss,” Halverson said. “Don’t be afraid to get a hearing test and see if you need hearing aids.”
Halverson encourages organizations and businesses to help raise awareness of noise-induced hearing loss by leveraging the wealth of resources online.
“Older people will say, ‘Had I only known,’” she remarked. “A lot of this information wasn’t available 45 years ago, but it is now.”
For more information, visit CDC.gov/NIOSH and AgriSafe.org.
