Photo credit: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez has dedicated this photo to the public domain
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Will America’s children suffer from hearing loss in the future like Flint, Michigan’s children are now suffering from neurological damage from lead poisoning? This recent report in The New York Times describes the long-term effects of lead poisoning on children in the Flint schools, and the great costs in trying to deal with these problems now.
The dangers to children’s hearing are well known. These include headphone use, noisy athletic events, noisy parties with amplified music at high volumes, band and musical instrument practices, and the much-too-loud soundtracks for action movies aimed at children.
It’s also well known that when children can’t hear, they have trouble learning. This evidence underlies the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for pediatric hearing screening.
But will those charged with protecting America’s children–the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Advertising Practices among them–do more to prevent America’s children from suffering hearing loss? And when will they do it?
Because prevention of a medical problem is almost always better, cheaper, and more efficient than treating the problem after it has developed.
