By Daniel Fink,MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Today, March 3, is World Hearing Day. This day is designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness and promote ear and hearing care around the world. The theme of this year’s World Hearing Day is “Action for Hearing Loss: Make a Sound Investment,” which aims to draw attention to the economic impact of hearing loss and cost effectiveness of interventions to address it.
I wish the WHO and the U.S. federal government paid a little more attention to prevention of hearing loss rather than dealing with the consequences after the damage has been done. The “public health mantra” is that prevention is better and cheaper than treatment, which in turn is better and cheaper than rehabilitation. I know that many people think hearing loss is part of normal aging, but several lines of evidence suggest that most hearing loss is caused by noise exposure. Presumably most people think they can just get a hearing aid when their hearing goes, unaware that hearing aids don’t work as well for hearing loss as eyeglasses work for presbyopia. And noise-induced hearing loss is entirely preventable–just avoid loud noise. If you can’t avoid noise, use earplugs.
Helen Keller said decades ago, “Blindness separates people from things. Deafness separates people from people.” The New York Times recently had a column about blindness, the most dreaded physical disability. If people were losing vision instead of losing hearing from noise exposure, people might be more concerned about our too noisy world.
