Hearing loss isn’t the first injury that comes to mind when an arc fault occurs. The light and heat emitted by the massive electrical explosion – the arc flash – can cause life-threatening and life-altering burns to the skin, compression injuries and loss of limbs if workers are left unprotected.
Tinnitus has more than one possible cause. For example, more than 200 medications are known to have tinnitus as a side effect. Exposure to bomb blasts is another cause, making tinnitus one of the most common service-related disabilities among combat veterans.
Unless your hearing is tested, it’s really hard to know if it’s damaged. That’s the message of a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey that found about one in four U.S. adults who say their hearing is good or excellent actually have hearing damage. Now the latest CDC Vital Signs report shows that much of this damage is from loud sounds encountered during everyday activities at home and in the community.
Audiologists have been at a loss to explain why some people cannot decipher speech in noisy situations -- until, possibly, now. A new breakthrough study calls this "hidden hearing loss."
Constant noise in the head – such as ringing in the ears – rarely indicates a serious health problem, but it sure can be annoying. Here’s how to minimize it.
According to OSHA, nearly 30 million employees are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work every year. Long term exposure to high levels of noise can cause permanent tinnitus or hearing loss.
Almost two-thirds of Americans 70 and older suffer from hearing loss ranging from mild to severe, according to what might be the first study to estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment in a nationally representative sample of older adults, TheNew York Times recently reported.
A growing number of pharma companies are pursuing drugs for the ear, according to a recent article in TheNew York Times. A clinical trial recently began of a gene therapy being developed by Novartis that is aimed at restoring lost hearing, according to the article.
Siemens’ smart hearing aids, recently introduced at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, promise to make the world more accessible for many people who are deaf or have hearing loss. The new easyTek™ aids are more like sophisticated wearables than traditional aids.
Tinnitus affects millions of people in the U.S. Most cases resolve on their own, but for some it is a lifelong issue. About 20 percent of people with persistent tinnitus need some sort of intervention. Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar of the American Academy of Otolaryngology co-authored new guidelines to treat tinnitus.
