You know that when a cause has an entire month dedicated to it, it must be important. For years, October has been National Protect Your Hearing Month. Why? Because hearing isn’t just important — hearing is essential!
Hearing plays a huge role in our physical health, emotional well-being and overall quality of life. The sound of laughter, music, the great outdoors, or simply conversations with friends and family fill each day and become vital parts of memories that last a lifetime.
That’s why it’s wise to protect your hearing and keep it the best it can be for as long as you can.
Protecting your hearing can help prevent hearing loss
Protecting your hearing from noise is the simplest way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), which is the second-leading cause of hearing loss.
Luckily, noise-induced hearing loss is preventable. In fact, it’s the only preventable cause of hearing loss.
Pay attention and be prepared
All it takes to damage your hearing is exposure to sounds 85 decibels (dB) and above. How loud is that? Well, a food blender is around 88 dB. A typical car wash is 89 dB. A petrol lawn mower is 96 dB. And noise from traffic, horns, airports and industrial activity consistently top that threshold.
So what’s a person to do? You can’t be expected to wear hearing protection when you’re making a milk shake.
No – but you should know your limits. The key to noise-induced hearing loss is decibel level PLUS time exposed: meaning how loud the noise is and how long you’re around it. All it takes is one loud gun blast or firework to cause damage — but unless you’re blending your shake for eight straight hours, you should be ok.
If you don’t work in loud environments, regularly attend loud music concerts or regularly use power tools why encountering DIY projects, it’s still sound advice to protect your hearing. This short video shows some easy tips to keep in mind.
Our SoundCheck app measures decibel levels in real time
Not sure how to know if the environment you're in is dangerously loud? That's easy, too. With our SoundCheck Hearing app, you can use your smartphone to check the decibel levels in any environment in real time. Download it free on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
At Starkey, we’re huge fans of October because we’re huge fans of hearing and living our best. That's why we recommend protecting your hearing today (and maybe you won't have to buy our hearing aids tomorrow).