Noise hazards......

(also read earlier blog: Noise...... Beware!)

Noise Induced Deafness........ partial though!!

   I wonder if its a co-incidence, but For teh last 3 weeks continuously, i have seen clients reporting with the complaint of unable to hear soft sounds.... especially amidst murmurs (like in offices). Typically follwing were the complaints:

• Unable to 'make out' what the speaker just said... though i heard it.
• Unable to follow speech while i drive.
• unable to follow speech when there is background noise (even though its not loud)
• Unable to follow speech if i dont lip read..... especially if its a woman talking!!
• difficult to follow conversation in board meetings.

All these guys were holding very good positions in their fields but the hearing problem was interfering in their lives. The audiogram was something like the following:
 It is to be observed that the hearing thresholds are normal till about 1000Hz but then on the thresholds dip mainly at 4000Hz. (Normal thresholds are upto 25 dB across all frequencies.

Indepth analysis of their heariing habits revealed, ALL OF THEM SPENT MOST OF THEIR WAKING HOURS ON THEIR CELL PHONES FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS.... MAINLY IN THE LAST 2 YRS!!

Phew..... 400-500 calls a day, occasionally on handsfree listening to music..

Not just these individuals but, i see so many young adults glued to their cell phones all the time....... either chattingor listening to music. At times the music played is so loud that even the neighbouring guy hears it!!

When this happens habitually, medically we are damaging our ears. The area which is damaged first is sensitive to high frequency hearing...... so that accounts for the typical audiogram seen above. If not curtailed, then eventually all the frequencies shall dip and the hearing loss will progress.

 

Point to drive home: The next time you feel tempted to use that handsfree or have long chats over

the mobile phone....... u know what to do!!