Protect Your HEARING!

suchandra · October 7, 2007

The ability to hear is the greatest gift for followers of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtan Movement.

harer nama harer nama harer nama iva kevalam

kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

[Cc. Adi 17.21]

"In this age of Kali," harer nama, "simply by chanting the holy name," harer nama, "simply by chanting the holy name," harer nama, again, thrice, "simply by chanting the holy name of Krsna..." Harer nama harer nama harer nama iva kevalam. You should always do this. Kalau: "In this age"; nasty eva, "there is no other alternative," nasty eva, "there is no other alternative," nasty eva, "there is no other alternative." Three times again, nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha: "There is no other process." So these are stressed by the Vedic literatures.

"More than 120 million people in the world have a disabling hearing impairment."

—World Health Organization.

http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020522/article_01.htm

Our ability to hear is a gift to be treasured. As we age, though, our hearing progressively diminishes. Modern society, with the many and varied sounds and noises it generates, seems to have accelerated this process. A senior scientist at the Central Institute for the Deaf, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., noted: "About 75 percent of hearing loss in the typical American is caused not by the aging process alone but by what you've done to your ears throughout your lifetime."

Intense, brief exposure to loud sounds can be harmful to the sensitive structures in the inner ear. More often, though, hearing loss is a result of "the cumulative effect of noisy jobs, noisy hobbies, noisy recreational activities," said hearing specialist Dr. Margaret Cheesman. What can you do to protect your hearing? To find the answer, it is helpful to know something about how your sense of hearing functions.

The Sounds We Hear

Our living environment seems to be getting louder. Daily many are battered by sounds of varying intensities ranging from the noise of cars, buses, and trucks in the streets to the racket of power tools in the workplace.

Sometimes we add to the problem by turning up the volume. One popular way of listening to music is through headphones attached to a portable CD or cassette player. According to Marshall Chasin, cofounder of the Musicians' Clinics of Canada, surveys conducted in Canada and in the United States indicate that youths are increasingly suffering loss of hearing caused by the use of headphones with the volume turned up.

But what is too loud? Sound is characterized in three ways—by duration, by frequency, and by amplitude. Duration simply refers to the length of time a sound is heard. A sound's frequency, or pitch, is described in cycles per second, or hertz. The range of audible frequency for normal, healthy hearing is from 20 to 20,000 cycles per second.

A sound's amplitude, or strength, is measured in units called decibels (dB). Normal conversation has a sound level of approximately 60 decibels. Audiologists say that the longer you are exposed to anything louder than 85 decibels, the greater will be the eventual loss of hearing. The louder the sound, the faster the damage to hearing. A Newsweek magazine report noted: "Your ear can safely handle two hours with a power drill (100 dB), but not more than 30 minutes in a noisy video arcade (110 dB). Every 10-decibel increase on the sound scale represents 10 times more ear-battering noise." Tests confirm that sound becomes painful at approximately 120 decibels. Incredibly, some home stereo equipment can produce sound at more than 140 decibels!—See the accompanying box.

To help you understand why loud sounds can damage your hearing, let us consider what happens when sound waves reach your ears.

<table align="center" bgcolor="#ffff99" border="1" bordercolor="#ff3300" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="300"> <tbody><tr> <td>Approximate Decibel Level of

Some Common Sounds

Breathing—10 decibels
Whispering—20 decibels
Conversation—60 decibels
Rush-hour traffic—80 decibels
Food blender—90 decibels
Passing train—100 decibels
Chain saw—110 decibels
Passing jet plane—120 decibels
Shotgun blast—140 decibels

</td> </tr></tbody></table> How Our Hearing Functions

The shape of the fleshy part of the outer ear, called the auricle, or pinna, is designed to collect sound waves and direct them into the ear canal, where they soon reach the eardrum. At this point the sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, and the eardrum, in turn, causes the three bones in the middle ear to vibrate. Next, the vibrations are transmitted into the inner ear, a fluid-filled sac encased in bone. Here the vibrations move through the fluid in the cochlea, the snail-shaped hearing part of the inner ear that contains the hair cells. The fluid in the cochlea triggers the top portion of the hair cells to produce readable nerve impulses. These impulses are then transmitted to the brain, where they are decoded and interpreted as sound.

The limbic system helps the brain decide which sounds to pay attention to and which to dismiss. For instance, a mother may not consciously hear the normal sounds of a child at play, but she will respond instantly to a cry of alarm. Hearing with two ears enables us to hear in stereo, which is very useful. It allows us to identify where the sounds are coming from. Yet, when a sound consists of speech, the brain can only understand one message at a time. "This is why," says the book The Senses, "when listening to someone while talking on the telephone, people cannot readily take in what the person next to them is saying."

How Noise Damages Our Hearing

To visualize how loud sounds can damage our hearing, consider the following analogy. One occupational safety report compares the hair membranes in the inner ear to wheat in a field and the sound entering the ear to the wind. A gentle breeze, like a low level sound, will move the tops of the wheat, but the wheat is not damaged. Increased wind velocity, however, will increase the stress on the wheat stalk. A sudden, extremely high wind or continuous exposure to lower winds over a long period of time may damage the stalk beyond repair and cause it to die.

It is similar with noise and the tiny, delicate hair cells in the inner ear. An instant loud blast can tear the tissues of the inner ear and leave scars that cause permanent hearing loss. In addition, prolonged dangerous noise levels can permanently damage the delicate hair cells. Once damaged, they cannot regenerate. The accompanying result may be tinnitus—a buzzing, ringing, or roaring in the ears or head.

Protect and Prolong Your Hearing

Although heredity or some unforeseen accident may result in hearing loss, we can take precautions to protect and prolong our precious sense of hearing. It is good to learn in advance about potential hearing hazards. As one audiologist said, "waiting for a problem to arise before taking action is like applying the suntan lotion after you've been burned."

Often it is a matter of how we listen and not so much what we listen to. For example, if you use stereo headphones, you may want to set the volume at a level low enough for you to be able to hear sounds around you. If your car or home stereo is set loud enough to drown out ordinary conversation, this may well be a signal that it is also loud enough to damage your hearing. Experts caution that two to three hours of exposure to 90 decibels can damage your ears. Earplugs or other hearing-protection devices are recommended whenever you are in a noisy environment.

Parents do well to remember that children are more susceptible to hearing damage than are adults. Keep in mind the potential danger of noisy playthings. Why, a toy rattle can reach 110 decibels!

Our ears are delicate, small, and wonderful mechanisms. With them we can hear all the varied and beautiful sounds of the world around us. Surely, this precious gift of hearing deserves to be protected.

You May Be Losing Your Hearing if You

Increase the volume on the radio or TV but others find it uncomfortably loud
Continually ask others to repeat themselves
Often frown, lean forward, and turn your head in order to hear the one speaking to you
Have difficulty hearing at public gatherings or when there is noise in the background, such as at a social gathering or in a busy store
Often depend on others to tell you what was said

Tantrayoga · November 6, 2007

Thats a very nice article. But ironically, it doesn't mention something important. It needs to mention how many decibels of sound a human ear has to suffer in a three hour ear piercing kirtana!!! The hard hitting cymbals, khartals, loud drums and shouting by many many people for hours, what impact it has on our ear drums? Will Lord hari still hear our heart's voice if we sang his name in sweet melodious voice, but softly? What if we meditated in our hearts on him as he tells Arjuna to do?

suchandra · November 7, 2007

Thats a very nice article. But ironically, it doesn't mention something important. It needs to mention how many decibels of sound a human ear has to suffer in a three hour ear piercing kirtana!!! The hard hitting cymbals, khartals, loud drums and shouting by many many people for hours, what impact it has on our ear drums? Will Lord hari still hear our heart's voice if we sang his name in sweet melodious voice, but softly? What if we meditated in our hearts on him as he tells Arjuna to do?

Thanks Tantrayoga, when googling I found this at Jayadvaita Swami's homepage:

Noise-induced Hearing Loss

http://www.jswami.info/hearing_loss

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss: What it is and what it may mean to you

A preliminary report

by Jayadvaita Swami

February 16, 1994

Though written especially for Hare Krishna devotees, this report—a nontechnical discussion of noise-induced hearing loss—should prove relevant for anyone in a noisy world.

The report discusses what noise-induced hearing loss is, how it develops, and what to do about it.

Last month an audiologist confirmed to me something I suspected: I have partially lost my hearing.

One may lose one’s hearing for many reasons—because of disease, or old age, or a blow to the head, or close exposure to the sound of blasts or gunshots. But the test of my hearing showed the typical signature of another kind of problem: hearing loss from prolonged exposure to noise.

Well, it doesn’t have to be noise, by which I mean disturbing or unpleasant sounds. One can also lose one’s hearing because of sounds one might find pleasant—like the sound of rock music, or classical. Or drums and karatals [hand cymbals].

Loss of hearing—for a while and for the rest of your life

Noise-induced hearing loss has two components: temporary and permanent. If you’ve ever attended a rock concert, for example, you may be familiar with temporary hearing loss. After the concert you may have found your ears ringing, and ordinary sounds may have seemed muffled. The ringing is a response from your assaulted auditory nerves. And that “muffled” effect comes from what’s called a “temporary threshold shift.” That is, after the blasting music, other sounds now need to be louder before you can hear them.

In temporary hearing loss, after a few minutes or or a few hours the ringing stops, and your hearing goes back to normal. But when loud sounds fall upon your ears repeatedly over a prolonged time, for months and years, the threshold shift becomes permanent. Your hearing loss is then irreversible.

The site of the damage responsible for this loss is the cochlea, a snail-shaped chamber within the inner ear. The cochlea is home to the 20,000 to 30,000 minute hair cells that transmit sound to the auditory nerve. Prolonged and excessive exposure to noise injures and finally destroys those cells. Once destroyed, the cells never come back.

How loud is the sound?

The loudness of sounds is measured in units called decibels, just as temperature is measured in degrees. Note, however, that, unlike degrees, decibels are not absolute units. Measurements in decibels are logarithmic, not linear. Imagine, if you will, a thermometer in which going up from 70 degrees to 73 means getting twice as hot, from 70 to 76 means 4 times hotter, and from 70 to 79 means 8 times hotter. That’s the idea. Every time the sound level goes up 3 decibels, the sound gets twice as loud.

How loud are the sounds we’re accustomed to hearing? Here’s a list that will give you a basic idea:

0 dB: threshold of hearing in youths

10 dB: anechoic room

30 dB: quiet library

45 dB: average residence

55 dB: normal conversation

60 dB: large store

70 dB: vacuum cleaner (10 feet away), freight train (100 feet away)

75 dB: average factory

80 dB: alarm clock, normal traffic, loud orchestra, pneumatic drill (from 50 feet)

85 dB: START OF UNSAFE LEVELS

90 dB: lawn mower, motorcycle, city traffic, boiler room, printing press room, subway train (from 20 feet)

100 dB: riveting machine

110 dB: thunder, pile driver, amplified rock music

125 dB: jet takeoff (from 200 feet away)

130 dB: pain threshold

The loudness of a sound depends, of course, on how far you are from its source, how clear the path between the sound and you, and what happens to the sound along the way. For example, a sound made outdoors might be moderately loud, but the same sound made in a small closed room with smooth walls will ricochet many times over, so its effect will be more intense.

How loud is an ISKCON kirtana [“ISKCON” is an acronym for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and “kirtana” means a chanting session]? I can’t say for everywhere. But according to a series of readings with a sound-level meter, here’s what it is in the temple room in Alachua. A typical guru-puja kirtana, with 3 drums, 2 or 3 sets of karatals, 2 moderate-sized “whompers” [large cymbals], and the usual amplification comes to around 100 decibels, with a sustained crescendo of 106 to 110.

Does that level of sound present a danger to hearing? Read on.

It happens without your knowing

The pitch, or frequency, of sounds is measured in units called Hertz (Hz). Young children may hear sounds as low as 16 Hz (lower in pitch than the lowest note on a piano) and as high as 20,000 (well above the highest note on a piccolo). As we grow older, the upper limit comes down, so that many adults can’t hear sounds above 12,000 Hz. The range of frequencies for speech extends from about 200 Hz to about 6,000. Music, of course, extends higher.

What happens in noise-induced hearing loss is that you start to lose your high frequencies. Typically, the tones around 4,000 Hz are the first to go. You may still hear those tones, but only when they’re louder than before. Young, healthy ears pick up sounds as soft as 10 or 20 decibels. With noise-induced hearing loss, you may not hear those sounds unless they’re many times louder, say 50 decibels.

The next tones to go might be in the range of 6,000 and 8,000 Hertz, as the hairs in your inner ear that respond to those frequencies are gradually damaged and then destroyed.

At this stage, you’re unlikely to notice what’s happening. The main sounds you’re conscious of are the sounds of speech, which mostly occupy the lower frequencies, 2,000 Hertz and below. Some consonants—like s, f, ,t and z—do extend into the higher frequencies, but even when you fail to hear them, your mind automatically uses the context given by the other letters to supply the sounds you’ve missed. So hearing seems to go on as normal. You’re losing your hearing, and you don’t even know it.

Noise-induced hearing loss progresses very slowly. It usually takes many months, and often years. Along the way, you feel no pain, see no blood or bruises. So you don’t realize what’s happening.

Next, however, the losses in the higher frequencies may become greater, and the lower tones may also start to give way. Now you start having trouble hearing speech. Actually, you can still hear it, but you start having trouble *distinguishing* what’s being said.

Now you may start to complain about your hearing. But by now the damage done is severe, irreversible, and perhaps even seriously handicapping.

Another problem I should mention (I mentioned it briefly before) is what’s technically called tinnitus (from a Latin word meaning “to ring”). This is a ringing, buzzing, whistling, or other such sound in the ear. Though disturbing, it’s generally temporary. But when damage in the inner ear has brought about a permanent loss in hearing, a ringing tinnitus may go on for many years.

Tinnitus, says one authority, does not commonly occur from exposure to everyday occupational noise. But “it does occur in employees who are exposed to very high-pitched intense noise, such as pounding of metal upon metal in foundries.” <sup>1</sup>

Like noise-induced hearing loss itself, tinnitus has no known cure. You just have to learn to live with it.

How much can you take?

It’s generally accepted that when a sound is excessively loud, the longer you’re exposed to it the more you put your hearing at risk. What’s a “safe dose” of loud sound?

This is a question to which much research and discussion has been devoted. The research has evolved, in particular, from the need to protect people from excessive noise in the workplace, especially the military and industrial workplace.

In America, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set standards limiting the time to which employers can let their workers be exposed to various levels of sound. Here are the standards:

<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" width="100%"> <tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">Sound level (dB)</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">Hours per days</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">90</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">8</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">92</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">6</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">95</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">4</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">97</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">3</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">100</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">2</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">102</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">1-1/2</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">105</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">1</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">110</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">1/2</td> </tr> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">115</td> <td colspan="1" align="left" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">1/4 or less</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

These numbers, however, represent legal standards, not medical or scientific ones. They belong to rules meant to help protect the hearing of workers (and protect employers in lawsuits brought by workers with hearing impaired).

Comments B. Adam Sagan, a lawyer with graduate degrees in audiology and speech pathology, “Both medical experts and speech scientists [agree] that the standards issued by OSHA are more a result of political compromise than scientific validity.”<sup>2</sup>

This is underscored by Donald C. Gasaway, one of America’s foremost experts on hearing loss and hearing conservation. “Many people [have] suffered a noise-induced loss because they were led to believe that higher levels of noise could be tolerated if the duration of exposure was less than some ‘magic’ number.… Such belief comes from what, in my opinion, is the misapplication of auditory risk criteria. If a given assessment states that 100 dB… is associated with a ‘dose’ of 30 minutes per day, there may be a general acceptance that the ‘risk’ is nullified if the duration is one-half of the ‘allowed’ dose, such as 15 minutes. I consider adoption of this belief a primary contributor to noise-induced losses. I have learned to respect seriously the danger of such high-level exposures, even for 2 minutes. In my opinion, those who provide guidance concerning such exposures should adopt a more cautious approach.”<sup>3</sup>

As reported in Health News, published by the University of Toronto, “At a level of 110 dB, even five minutes of unremitting exposure can lead to some hearing loss.”<sup>4</sup>

Health News summarizes things this way: “To determine whether your environment is loud enough to harm the ears, check whether you have to shout to make yourself heard or if, when you leave a noisy environment, sound seems muffled. If yes, the noise level is too high and already injuring your ears. “While entirely preventable, noise-induced hearing loss is also entirely incurable. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, millions of North Americans are at risk of hearing loss from noisy work situations, especially farmers, truck drivers, miners, industrial and construction workers, policemen and musicians (playing in the orchestra or rock band can be a very noisy job). “The currently suggested level at which hearing protection should begin on a voluntary basis (no laws about it) is 85 dB. According to ear specialists it should be mandatory at 90 dB. People with jobs that expose them to noise over the 85-decibel level for a prolonged time should wear personal hearing protectors (earplugs or earmuffs) and turn the volume down during recreational activities. Remember that levels from rock bands and personal stereos may far exceed the danger limit!”<sup>5</sup>

What this means to ISKCON

How all this pertains to ISKCON should by now be reasonably obvious. As part of our prescribed routine program, we expose ourselves, and those for whom we are responsible, to levels of sound well within the range where loss of hearing should be a matter of concern. Drums and karatals are loud to begin with. And lately karatals of giant size have come to be something of a fashion. We play our instruments indoors, in what are often small rooms with low ceilings and smooth walls and floors. And then we electronically amplify the sound.

Beyond this, devotees generally have little or no education about what the physical effects of loud sound on the ears can be. And so during kirtana we turn up the volume to maximum. We even see devotees playfully using karatalas as if to box the ears of other devotees. Within my own experience, last year one senior devotee came up close to me during kirtana as if to whisper something in my ear, and then shouted at the top of his lungs, “GOVINDA!” We sometimes have ill-informed ideas about how to express our ecstasy.<sup>6</sup>

We are responsible, of course, for large numbers of people, including children. We want them to be fit and healthy for devotional service. And we are ethically accountable for their welfare.

Apart from that, we can suppose that people more cautiously protective of their hearing may be hesitant to join in the Hare Krishna movement as word gets around that a disproportionate number of its members eventually need hearing aids and acoustic earmuffs.<sup>7</sup>

Stopping it from happening

Noise-induced hearing loss, though permanent and irreversible, is largely preventable. The way to prevent it is through what is known as a Hearing Conservation Program. Such programs have been in place in all branches of the U.S. military since the 1950’s, and U.S. law has made them mandatory in high-noise industrial environments since 1971. Such a program is appropriate—and important—for any organization that expects its members to be regularly exposed to high levels of sound.

An effective Hearing Conservation Program generally has seven parts:<sup>8</sup> (1) measuring levels of exposure, (2) controlling the level of sound, (3) testing the hearing of your people, (4) seeing to the use of ear protectors, (5) educating and motivating your people, (6) keeping records, and (7) seeing how well your program is doing.

Let me briefly explain each one.

1. Measuring the level of exposure.

How loud is the sound? Does it present a problem or not? There are standard equipment and procedures that will tell you. (It’s not expensive.)<sup>9</sup>

2. Controlling the level of sound.

Once you know how loud your sound is, if it’s too high you can work to bring it down. In a factory this might mean using quieter machines or sealing off areas that are noisy. Controlling sound in ISKCON centers might involve, for example, turning down amplifiers, placing limits on the use of certain instruments, and using sound-absorbing materials for softer acoustics in temple rooms.

In these efforts the first step—obvious but easily overlooked—is for the person or governing body in charge to take them seriously.

3. Testing the hearing of your people.

If your sound is at safe levels, fine. If not, your people should have regular, periodical hearing tests.

Hearing tests are brief, standard medical procedures, performed with a tone generator and earphones, to tell you what’s happening to a person’s hearing. They are usually performed by a mobile testing unit or at a local hearing clinic, though they may also be done in-house by a person properly trained.<sup>10</sup>

Since noise does most of its damage before a person even notices that his hearing is going bad, hearing tests are the only sure way to detect trouble in time to prevent it.

Hearing tests also provide the way for you to tell how well your hearing-conservation program is working.

4. Seeing to the use of ear protectors.

If you can’t cut down the sound, people may need to directly protect their ears.

A wide selection of protective devices is available—various kinds of ear plugs, ear putty, and so on. But they only work properly when properly chosen, fitted, and used. People who need them should be encouraged to use them, and shown how to use them properly.

For people whose hearing has already been affected, using hearing protectors—or staying away from loud sound altogether—is the only way to keep their ears from getting worse.

5. Educating and motivating your people.

In a movement such as ours, I hope it’s needless to explain why people don’t deserve to be left ignorant.

Of course, we’re mainly concerned about spiritual understanding. But since our process of spiritual enlightenment depends, most of all, upon hearing, it follows that devotees ought to safeguard the proper functioning of their ears.

This, too, requires proper education and encouragement.

6. Keeping records

Properly kept records allow you to keep track of what’s going on with your program. Also—of crucial concern—they’re essential for keeping track of the aural health of individual devotees.

7. Seeing how well your program is doing.

Periodically reevaluating your program helps you see how well it’s working, alerts you to problems, and helps you see any changes you should make.

Closing remarks

There. Now, I hope, I’ve alerted you and somewhat informed you. Take it lightly if you will. But be warned: If you ignore all this, soon you and other devotees may wind up expanding the ocean of Krishna’s glories by often repeating a new mantra: “Say that again?”

————————————————————————-

ENDNOTES

1. Sataloff, Joseph and Michael, Paul, Hearing Conservation (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1973), pg. 83.

2. B. Adam Sagan, “Occupationally Induced Hearing Loss: A Real World Perspective,” The Legal Intelligencer, June 1, 1993.

3. Gasaway, Donald C., 1985, Hearing Conservation: A Practical Manual and Guide, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, p. 67-68.

4. Health News, University of Toronto, August 1993, p. 5.

5. Ibid.

6. My audiologist, a pious Hindu lady in South Africa, advised me that we ought to be concerned about sound levels higher than 80 decibels. Maybe to pray to Satan and block out your mind, you might need 100 decibels, she remarked. But for praying to God, 80 decibels ought to be enough.

7. To those who’d say that limitless volume is ok because the holy name is transcendental, the response is simple: Your hearing loss will also be transcendental.

8. Suter, Alice H. and Franks, John R. (ed), A Practical Guide to Effective Hearing Conservation Programs in the Workplace, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Biomedical and Behavioral Science, Physical Agents Effects Branch, September 1990.

9. Sound-level meters are availabale from Radio Shack for $31.99. Catalog number 33-2050.

10. What does it cost? In an article published in 1987, the principal consultant for the Engineering Department at E.I. du Pont said that taking part in a hearing-conservation program costs “between $20 (Du Pont’s estimate) and OSHA’s estimated $41 per employee per year.” Presumably, that’s for the whole cost of the program. (Terrence A. Dear, “Noise Criteria Regarding Risk and Prevention of Hearing Injury in Industry,” in Sataloff, Robert Thayer and Joseph, 1985, Occupational Hearing Loss, New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., p. 498.

A glance at the Gainesville Yellow Pages shows several hearing-aid retailers that provide free hearing tests. On the phone, one such company told us they recommend that you come in for a free test once every year.