MUSIC [Iskander] Hello I'm Dr. John Iskander welcome
to CDC: Beyond the Data.
I'm here today with Dr. Bill Murphy, a research physicist
with CDC's National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health.
Welcome, Bill.
[Murphy] Thank you, John.
[Iskander] So our Grand Rounds today was hearing health
across the lifespan.
What can you tell us to begin with about what is the scope
of hearing loss as a public health problem?
[Murphy] Well, it's actually rather large.
You know, when I started working in this field,
I didn't have an idea of how large the scope
of the problem can be.
In the data that we share in this presentation,
we've noted that in the United States,
61 million persons suffer from high frequency hearing loss
and that's people who have a hearing loss of more
than 25 decibels at 3, 4, and 6 kilohertz,
frequencies at which we test for hearing.
[Iskander] So that's a large proportion of the population.
Now, particularly healthcare providers when they hear
"high frequency hearing loss",
they may associate that with aging.
Is that the only group in our population that's at risk?
[Murphy] No.
Well, I work at the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health, and we are interested
in all aspects of things that would cause hearing loss
within workers and the primary cause that they suffer
or the causes of hearing loss is noise exposure.
So when we have workers that are exposed to more than 85 decibels
of sound, and that would be for instance you and me trying
to have a conversation where I would have to raise my voice
in order to be able to communicate to you
over the noise, That's an example or a sign of being
in a noise environment that's too loud.
So we have noise as one source, we also have other things
that are potential ototoxic exposures.
We have things such as medicines that people can be exposed
to if they're on some chemotherapy medications
like cisplatin or carboplatin.
We have aminoglycoside antibiotics
that are potential causes of hearing loss.
Those are things that can affect a person's hearing.
We have workers that are having multiple exposures
to not only noise, but also to things such as organic solvents,
or maybe they have some of heavy metal exposures such as lead,
or cadmium, mercury, those kinds of things
and those can cause hearing loss in a person as well.
[Iskander] So, a lot of things
that could put working age adults at risk for hearing loss,
certainly some age-related effects of hearing loss.
What about children and adolescents?
What might put them at risk for hearing loss?
[Murphy] Right, good question.
The thing that we see in children
and adolescents is maybe not being knowledgeable
about what it is that could cause a noise-induced hearing
loss or what could cause hearing loss
in their in their situations.
So, for instance, I had a discussion last night
with my colleague, Deanna, and we were talking
about noise exposures with fireworks.
So if you have children that are using fireworks
and setting them off and maybe out behind the garage
and blowing off a black cat or firecracker or something
like that, just those exposures alone
without proper protection can produce hearing loss
in children.
We also have children that are the iPod generation so to speak.
Then we have a lot of children using
and adolescents using personal music players getting exposures
that way.
My own children have gone to a number of rock concerts
and things like that and the noise levels,
the exposure levels at rock concerts are in the 110
to 120 decibel noise exposure range or some level range
and those are potentially very damaging to the hearing.
[Iskander] So again, a point people may not be aware
of that it's not only ongoing exposures,
but there are certain acute exposures
that can cause permanent damage to hearing.
So thinking about all of these groups, different kinds of ages,
what are the sort of both kind of personal
and maybe more public health prevention strategies
that have been found to work?
[Murphy] Well, one of the programs that we discussed
in the Grand Rounds is the Dangerous Decibels Program.
And the unique thing about Dangerous Decibels is,
it is a evidence-based public health promotion
and hearing loss prevention program.
And the idea is to get children involved,
get them to understand what it is about the auditory system
and how it can be affected by noise and to make them aware
of the fact that least at this point in time,
if you lose your hearing, it's gone.
You know, it's not like a burn on your skin where, alright,
you burn yourself and it heals up.
No, if you destroy the hair cells
in the cochlea, there gone.
Now hopefully in the future,
we'll see perhaps maybe some genetic treatments in animals
and in humans where they may be able to restore hearing
through a genetic treatment and I know that they've had success
in mice in doing this,
but at this point we haven't gotten it for humans.
[Iskander] Okay.
So thinking of again someone, you know, a parent, a homeowner.
What are the hearing protection technologies or mechanisms,
you know, available to them on an everyday basis?
[Murphy] Good question.
So one of the things that we have promoted
with Dangerous Decibels is to turn it down.
If you're listening to music, if you're listening to an iPod
or personal stereo, rock concert, whatever,
turn it down means turn the volume down.
Another one that you can do is
if it is too loud, you can walk away.
As you move further away from something, the sound levels
that are reaching your ears are going to be reduced just
because of the spreading of sound over the surface area
of what you're looking at.
The other one is to protect your hearing
and that's actually what I've spent a good part of my career
at NIOSH working on hearing protection
and understanding how hearing protection can be tested,
how it can be rated, different ways
in which we can test workers to make sure
that they are wearing their protection properly.
[Iskander] And of course many of those technologies, earplugs
and earphones, are you know, available to the public.
[Murphy] Yes, they are.
You can go to Kroger, at least up in Cincinnati where I live,
the local grocery store, Walmart, or wherever,
and you can find a little box of earplugs for a couple of dollars
or something like that.
You can buy a set of earmuffs at any of the hunting stores
that will give you a good amount of protection from firearms
and noise from, you know, shooting guns
or doing target practice or something like that.
But there are other devices that are available for people
who need to have better communication and that's one
of the things that we worry about with workers
and their ability to communicate on the job.
If they have a hearing critical job and if they can't hear
that warning sound, then they're in danger
of perhaps even being run over or even killed.
You know, they say that hearing loss doesn't kill.
Well, all right it's not the hearing loss that kills you,
it's the steamroller or whatever that runs over you,
or it's the dump truck that runs over you that could kill you.
But it's the fact that you didn't hear it.
You didn't hear that warning sound.
That's where hearing loss is so important for the workers,
as well as for children and such.
[Iskander] Okay.
Yeah, I think one of the points that will stick with me is
that idea if you just sort of turn your volume
on your music player down to 60%, you know,
that's a safe level for long-term listening.
[Murphy] That tends to be a good level to shoot for.
You know, it doesn't need to be super loud.
Now, I look at my kids and actually they're pretty good
about it because I raised them from day one.
You know, if you're going to work around the power tools,
you put your earmuffs on.
If you're going to be doing something was sanding,
you put your respirator and your dust mask on
and protect your lungs and protect your ears,
protect your eyes, those kinds of things.
And really, the point is, is that you need
to use protection consistently and correctly every time.
You know, if you're wearing earplugs and you just kinda'--
there was one of the guys at the airport
that had them behind his ears.
Well, they're not supposed to be behind your ears,
they're supposed to be in your ears.
Now, granted, he wasn't in noise, he was walking
between one place and another, but I've seen that in many cases
where the earplugs and they're out working around the airplane,
and they're hanging around their neck.
Well, that's not doing them any good.
You need to wear it correctly
and consistently every time you are exposed to noise.
[Iskander] So lots of good take-home information
and for more information, people could look
to either the NIOSH website or the Dangerous Decibels website.
[Murphy] Yeah, that would be a good place to start.
We have a lot of information on NIOSH, of course,
most of that is oriented towards the occupational side,
but the take-home message is: the things that you do at work,
at least with noise, the exposures that you have at work,
they translate to the home.
You know, for carpenters, one of the things that we found:
if you plug it in, it's going to probably be
over this 85 decibel occupational exposure,
recommended exposure limit.
And so, if you plug it in, you need to be wearing protection.
And the same thing at home, if you've got a lawnmower,
if you got a leaf blower ,if you're using a chainsaw
or a circular saw, that kind of thing,
you should wear protection.
[Iskander] I appreciate you sharing all
of this very practical information with us.
Thank you very much for joining us, Dr. Murphy.
[Murphy] My pleasure.
[Iskander] Please join us next time for CDC's: Beyond the Data.
MUSIC