HEARING HEALTH: In Praise of Ear Plugs
BY ALAN WILLIAMSON
I was standing at the kitchen sink cleaning my ear plugs in warm soapy water and suddenly wondered: How did I get to this level of personal strangeness? Or more specifically: How did I become a man who regularly buys, uses and cares for small pieces of molded rubber designed to plug up his ear canal and squelch all sound within a 30-yard radius?
Having just used the phrase "squelch all sound" in the previous sentence, two things occur to me: 1) It's a rare treat to be able to legitimately use the word "squelch," and 2) the addictive power that "squelch all sound" implies provides the key to putting my curious ritual in perspective.
Years ago, after my wife and I moved into our current home, I found myself repeatedly awakened at night by noise from our neighbor's patio. The fact that the patio was only four feet from our bedroom window and contained a hot tub meant that gurgling water and babbling bathers were a recurring plot line in the live "Late Show" next door.
After mulling over my options for a couple of weeks, I zeroed in on two potential courses of action. I could spend months carefully cultivating a relationship with my neighbor that would transition gradually and imperceptibly from cordial waves hello and goodbye, to casual conversations out in the yard about lawn fertilizer and the mating habits of Somali tree frogs, to becoming a trusted friend who makes a convincing case for getting rid of the hot tub on the grounds that it causes premature wrinkling and secondhand insomnia. Or I could just buy some ear plugs. I decided that buying ear plugs was the practical solution.
But I had a lot to learn. Ear plugs, like so many seemingly simple items, offer a surprising variety of design features that can have a profound effect on the quality of desired deafness. I found that certain variables need to be taken into account on your way to successfully soundproofing your head.
Pick Your Plugs with Care
The EPA (which turns out to be the Environmental Protection Agency, not the Ear Police Academy, as I had guessed) has established a range of noise reduction for hearing protectors. Ratings run from zero to 30 decibels (dB), with the high end denoting better noise reduction and the low end denoting a complete waste of time and money.
By way of comparison, let's take a look at different decibel ranges and everyday activities where appropriately-rated ear plugs may be of benefit.
- Over 25 dB rating: Effective for rock concerts, power tools, lawn mowing, car racing and opinionated gas bags.
- 20-25 dB rating: Light vacuuming, moderately loud chewing, humming a Michael Bubl ballad.
- Under 20 dB rating: Paint drying.
The highest rating currently available in ear plugs is 33 dB. With this in your ear, a 75 dB noise such as a vacuum cleaner is about as menacing to the delicate hair cells in the inner ear as elevator music.
Ear plug performance can depend on the materials they are made of as well. Today's over-the-counter ear plugs come in soft foam, silicone and rubber. There are pros and cons to each.
Foam offers the most hands-on control, allowing you to mold it into the perfect cylinder to fi t your ear canal. The downside: When the compressed foam mixes with your ear wax it can gradually become slick and pop free.
The next sound you may hear is an innocent bystander yelling something along the lines of, "Yuck, get it off me!"
Silicone plugs are washable and last a lot longer. The downside: They come in premolded sizes, which may or may not fit well in the nooks and crannies of your ears.
Rubber with flanges, my personal favorite, provides multiple rubber rims that you can twist and turn until they snugly adhere to the contours of your ear canal. Once secured, everything short of a nearby symphony orchestra escapes your awareness.
While I'm delighted to credit rubber ear plugs with flanges for my ability to sleep well at home or away, I have to admit that their addictive power has led me to use them more and more during daylight hours. So complete is their sound insulation, that I've remained oblivious to the following disturbances:
- The 2008 presidential race
- 947 telemarketing calls, and counting
- 391 debates about good carbs, bad carbs and low carbs
- The 2008 and 2009 hurricane and tropical storm seasons
- Coverage of the Bernie Madoff, Phil Spector, Michael Vick and Roman Polanski cases.
My dependency on ear plugs has gotten so severe, my wife is taking a course in sign language to communicate with me. Hey, I wonder what it means when someone moves their hand back and forth several times like a windshield wiper and then carries luggage out to the car? I'll have to ask her when she gets back.
Alan Williamson is a nationally published humor writer whose work explores the human dilemmas of everyday life. Shunning the complex issues and thorny global conundrums of the day, he chronicles the personal quirks, snags and convoluted capers that are grounded in real-life experience. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Alan can be reached at alwilly@bellsouth.net or http://unauthorizedinsights.blogspot.com. When he's not wearing ear plugs, he has excellent hearing.
Listen to Your Buds
Because misuse of personal audio technology can lead to noise-induced hearing loss, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) launched a multifaceted campaign, "Listen To Your Buds" (LTYB), that teaches children to use the technology safely. From May 23-29, a new initiative of the campaign, "Buds in the Schools Week," occurred in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area school systems of Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Washington, D.C., Arlington
County and Alexandria City. Six concerts by leading children's music artists wove in ASHA's safe-listening message. Additionally, ASHA recently re-launched the LTYB campaign Web site (www.listentoyourbuds.org) which is aimed at empowering parents and protecting children from noise-induced hearing loss and other communication diffi culties. A unique feature of the site allows users to take a personal pledge to protect their hearing. The site also features a calendar of events, designated sections for parents and educators, and access to other national organizations that help get the "Buds" safe listening message to parents, educators and children. In the coming months, ASHA will be introducing new site features including downloadable educational resources for families and additional multimedia.
The campaign has been honored for three straight years by the American Society of Association Executives, and has been joined by the Consumer Electronics Association, The Parents' Choice Foundation and other organizations. ASHA and the LTYB campaign was also the first to partner with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders on the "It's a Noisy Planet. Protect Their Hearing" campaign, of which Deafness Research Foundation is also a partner.
