These strange sounds could be all that you ever hear if you acquire noise exposure hearing loss. What raises your risk? Three things: volume level and length of use, recurrence of exposure, and genetic predisposition. Who's at risk? Users of music players, i.e., iPod's, MP3's, children playing with noise making TOYS, those who work in noisy environments, hunters, musician, etc.

Noise exposure causes high frequency hearing loss. Most of the consonants we produce while speaking are in the high frequency range. This is important to note because consonants are responsible for 95% of speech understanding/clarity. Individuals with high frequency hearing loss are left hearing mostly low frequency sounds. Vowels are mostly low frequency sounds and they provide 95% of speech volume. Therefore, C_ns_n_nts _r_ m_r_ _mp_rt_nt th_n v_w_ls. If you want to hear both the consonants and the vowels you need to take action NOW!

Prevention is the key!

• Use earplugs, earmuffs, &/or musician monitors when appropriate.
• To listen to a simulated hearing loss, visit www.earbud.org (a great site for kids!).
• Please ask me for a list of toys that can damage hearing, and/or the hearing risk chart.
• You can also visit the www.apple.com for a free download of the Volume Limits for your iPod nano or 5th Generation iPod.

Did you know that Consonants are more important than vowels?