October is National Protect Your Hearing Month. Now you might be saying to yourself, "Really? We need to devote an entire month to protecting your hearing?" Facts like today's suggest we do.
According to the CDC, hearing loss — primarily caused by noise exposure — is the most common work-related illness. It is so common, they note, that “it is often accepted as a normal consequence of employment.”
If you work in a library, or an office that doesn’t have a foosball table, you might be wondering how that can be. But if you work in construction, a garage, in the music industry, or any kind of industrial or factory setting (just to name a few loud workplaces), you’re probably not shocked to hear it.
Fortunately, most noisy jobs today have good hearing protection protocols in place. Unfortunately, human nature usually prevents us from adhering to those protocols 100 percent of the time.
The good news is that noise-induced hearing loss — which is the second leading cause of hearing loss after aging — is the only kind of hearing loss that is preventable.
There are good hearing protection tips that are easy to follow. There are innovative hearing protection products that you can wear all day on the job. And, if you do find yourself with work-related hearing loss, there are excellent hearing healthcare professionals who can help you get back to hearing your best.
As happy as we are that we have a whole month dedicated to hearing protection awareness, we’ll be happier when protecting your hearing becomes second nature to people, and noise-induced hearing loss is last on the list of work-related illnesses.
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