Who Should Protect Their Hearing?
Lucas Audiology believes that everyone should be protecting their hearing. Whether you work in noise, run noisy equipment at home, or listen or play music, good hearing health is important to protect our hearing. Some of our clients work in the following sectors:
Manufacturing
Construction
Automotive
Agriculture
Policing
Landscaping
Music
However, our services extend to any workers or hobby enthusiasts requiring custom noise services. We also provide specialized products for hunters and gun enthusiasts.
A .22 caliber rifle is capable of producing a sound of 140 dB. This level of noise can cause damage to our hearing instantly. There are a number of new products allowing hunters to protect their hearing from the impact of such loud noises while being able to hear nature sounds around them. Check out these products by SoundGear, available through Lucas Audiology.
There are a number of high-risk areas of employment for noise-induced hearing loss. It is estimated that over 1 million Ontario workers work in the manufacturing, automotive, or policing sectors.
Employers and employees in these high-risk sectors for noise-induced hearing loss are encouraged to think about what safety measures are in place to protect their hearing.
Hearing safety should extend beyond the workplace. There are a number of strategies we can use in our daily lives to help conserve our hearing.
These strategies can include:
Hearing protection at home. This can include hearing protection while conducting lawn maintenance or home renovations.
Turn down the volume of music and television, particularly while using earphones. As a general rule, you should be able to comfortably have a conversation with someone next to you while using earphones. If you can’t, it is too loud.
Distancing ourselves from noise can help reduce the overall level. The further we are from the noise, the quieter it is. For example, a safe listening distance for a running saw is approximately 20m (60 feet).
Miter saws, or any other type of saw can reach sound levels well over 100 dB. At this level, damage to our ears begins in less than 2 minutes. That is significant damage over the course of one weekend home renovation.
