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What about noise pollution?

By Staff | Jun 12, 2013

To the editor:

In our global world, we hear much about air, water, and oil pollution. There is one pollution that seems to be silent – noise pollution.

You can lose your hearing for lots of reasons such as age, genetics, and all those blaring rock concerts you attended during your youth. More than 26.7 million Americans 50 or older now have trouble hearing.

Difficulty hearing in noisy places is often the first noticeable sign of hearing loss. How loud is too loud? How to fix hearing loss? You can’t repair damaged hearing cells, but you can prevent further hearing loss by limiting your exposure to loud noises.

Common culprits include electronic devices such as iPods, music players and sound speakers – a MP3 player at max volume that blasts out as many as 105 decibels.

Many young people have these sound speakers in their cars and you can hear them on the road. Listening to just one loud song can damage hearing. If others can hear your iPod when you are using ear buds, the music is too loud.

For many, auditory loss happens so gradually that they barely realize it. Regardless of age, let’s protect our hearing (by turning down the noise) as it can be “hear today and gone tomorrow.”

Jane Dickinson

Lehigh Acres