This article does not make sense to me. Was paperwork issued and questions answered to see if all the documented subjects used the Proper Protection Equipment (PPE) while working in a high noise environment and/or during recreational activities while in a high noise environment? If yes, what type of protection was used, earmuffs, earplugs (disposable or individually molded) electronic hearing protection devices, semi-insert devices, ear canal caps, etc.
Per the article:
“Want to avoid hearing loss? Then you’ll probably have to avoid aging.”
Not necessarily. Yes, hearing loss is part of growing older, but wearing the proper Personal Protection Equipment for the noisy environment you expose yourself to will reduce the possibility of hearing loss.
If you look at today’s society, everyone is on their cell phone with earbuds listening to whatever it is they are listening to. If I can hear the earbuds of the person sitting next to me, they are already exposing themselves to damaging noise levels. Children in their single digits of age are already damaging their hearing with earbuds, even before they get into the thirty-five to sixty-four age group.
Per the article:
“But then we read the paper again and noticed a line we hadn’t clocked before: “those living in rural areas experience higher rates of [hearing loss], perhaps due to potential noise exposure from outdoor work and recreation such as forestry, all-terrain vehicles, and recreational firearms.””
“If ever there was an epidemic in the hunting community, it’d be hearing loss,” begins former editor Sam Lungren in MeatEater, an outlet that embraces hunting but not the culture wars that often go with it. “When target practice is a way of life, it’s easy to become blasé about earmuffs. When that buck is about to get over the ridge, jamming in ear plugs is the last of our worries.”
Shame on the gun community.
I am now sixty-two and retired. I have worked on helicopters from the age of twenty-two to the age of sixty-one. I have worked around jet engines and whirling rotor blades daily for thirty-nine years. I mow and weed-eat my own yard, pressure clean, use a chainsaw and have used recreational firearms. I have always worn and still do wear the proper Personal Protection Equipment for the task at hand. OSHA required me to participate in a Hearing Conservation Program. My hearing was tested every year for thirty-nine years. My hearing does stink, but it does meet the lower end criteria of acceptable for a person of my age. If I did not abide by the OSHA Hearing Conservation Program by wearing the proper PPE, I am sure my hearing would be much worse than it is now, and it would be considered unacceptable.
The problem is the lack of Hearing Conservation Education. It does not matter if you are white, black, yellow, red, green, religious, atheist, republican, democrat, independent, communist or a firearm enthusiast. Hearing loss is not selective, and it does not discriminate.
