Risk of Workplace Noise: Occupational Noise Exposure

» As reported by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of United States, "Every year, approximately 30 million people in the United States are occupationally exposed to hazardous noise. Noise-related hearing loss has been listed as one of the most prevalent occupational health concerns in the United States for more than 25 years. Thousands of workers every year suffer from preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels".

» Use SoundMeter+ to determine whether your workplace is dangerous or not.

» Use a medical-grade noise dosimeter (embedded in SoundMeter+) to know how severe your occupational noise exposure is.

Use "SoundMeter+" for Self-Evaluation of Hearing Loss 

» Download SoundMeter+ from here.

» Open SoundMeter+. Press "Hearing Protection" button.

» Select "6. Is my environment safe for my hearing or not?". Then press "Do I have hearing loss or not? Evaluate myself now."

» You can see there are twelve questions. Answer Yes/No to each of them:

1. Do you have difficulty in following conversation when two or more people are talking at the same time?

2. Do people complain because you misunderstand what they say?

3. Do you ask people to repeat themselves?

4. Do people mention your hearing?

5. Do you have trouble hearing over telephone?

6. Do you feel stressful to understand conversation?

7. Do people say that you turn TV volume up too high?

8. Do you have difficulty hearing conversation in the presence of noise?

9. Do you react inappropriately because you do not understand what others are saying?

10. Do many people seem not to speak clearly?

11. Do you avoid social activities because not very easy to hear what is happening?

12. Do you have difficulty understanding what women or children say?

» Write down your answers on a piece of paper as "1 No, 2 Yes, 3 No, ..., 12 No".

» Press "See conclusions on my self-evaluation" on SoundMeter+.

» Count the number of "Yes" on your paper:

• If you have answered yes to one or two of the evaluation questions, you may have hearing loss.

• If three or four, you have hearing loss.

• If five or more, you need to consult a doctor.

» After the first self-evaluation, please re-evaluate yourself every 2-4 months.

• If the number of "Yes" continues to increase, it indicates your hearing loss is getting more severe. Please consult a doctor as soon as you can.

» After the first self-evaluation, please use SoundMeter+ to carefully evaluate environments around yourself in order to avoid any future exposure to dangerous sounds, because dangerous sounds can make hearing loss become worse and worse. Our hair cells in inner ear that converts sound to nerve signal will not grow back once they are damaged by dangerous sounds. So please continue to protect your hair cells and your hearing health!

» On SoundMeter+, more information of hearing health & hearing protection are listed below "Hearing Protection" button.

» Please see "Approximately 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 20 and 69—or 26 million Americans—have high frequency hearing loss that may have been caused by exposure to loud sounds or noise at work or in leisure activities" on NIH http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/noise.aspx

» Now early hearing loss starts to spread more and more in kids because environments are becoming more and more noisy.

» SoundMeter+ is dedicated to deliver a health-related message - "Self Hearing Protection" is needed now by all!

» If SoundMeter+ is helpful to you, please help us to spread this message to protect people around you. Thanks!

Loud Toys Can Cause Hearing Damage in Children. A Life-Long Suffering!

» Read "Some toys are so loud that they can cause hearing damage in children" from ASHA of United States.

» See List of Dangerous Toys from "Sesame Street Let's Rock" to "Toy Story Buzz Lightyear", which are identified by researchers from University of California, Irvine.

How to prevent hearing loss from happening?
If it happens, how to avoid becoming worse?

» See"It is a noisy planet! Protect Your Tween's Hearing Campaign" from National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorder (NIDCD).

» If hearing loss happens, please stay away from loud noise in order to avoid getting worse.

» Use SoundMeter+ to alert you and your family anytime & anywhere about dangerous environment..