Tinnitus on the Rise…In Children?
According to a Swedish national newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, researchers in Sweden have discovered that school-aged children are experiencing tinnitus (ringing in the ears) at a rate of seven times more than just a few years ago. The researchers, though alarmed at the trend, are at somewhat of a loss to explain it. Dr. Kajsa-Mia Holgers, a member of the team, believes that the findings show that children are surrounded by increasing levels of stress and noise, resulting in the hissing or ringing in their ears. The study did not establish whether the tinnitus symptoms were permanent or temporary.
A First for Mogadishu
According to an April 11 Web post on www.irinnews.org, the home of the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, the Somalian capital of Mogadishu has opened the country’s first and only school for deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children. Prior to the school’s opening, D/HH children simply stayed at home. The students at the school interact with each other – and with the school’s few hearing students – through sign language. School Director Usman Muhammad Mahamud says the greatest challenges now will be funding the school and finding teachers with the appropriate training – no small feat considering Somalia already has a general shortage of teachers in all subjects.
Japan Getting into Gear
Japan’s National Police Agency recently announced that, under certain conditions, D/HH people will be allowed to drive within the next two years. Currently, Japan’s 129,000 D/HH are prohibited from driving because of a law that requires drivers to be able to hear a car horn from 10 meters away. D/HH will still not be permitted to drive large vehicles and taxis, though motorcycle driving is under consideration. Visit the Web site of the Japanese Federation of the Deaf for more information: www.jfd.or.jp/en.
In yet another advance in Japan for people with hearing loss, and blindness too, is the premier of Japan’s first film about the life of a deaf/blind person, “Have You Ever Heard of Japan’s Helen Keller?” Directed by Setsuo Nakayama, the film was screened in June and is scheduled for release at venues throughout the country. The deaf/blind woman on whose life the film is based formed the country’s first nationwide group aimed at improving conditions for people with such disabilities in 1964. However, when her mother died in 1975, Kitazaki, the woman once known as Japan’s Helen Keller, was forced into social isolation. It was there that movie distributor Sumio Yamamoto met her and was inspired to tell her story through film. The film poses the question, “Why does a competent and passionate person have to be marginalized in society because of a disability?” Yamamoto hopes his film will spur a movement toward better social support for the rights of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. For more, visit Kyodo News on the Web, http://home. kyodo.co.jp.
Wireless Work Protection System
Eighteen-year-old Johannes Hartmann, a German high school student, earned a design award at a trade fair in Munich for his invention, Wireless Work Protection System, reports www.hear-it.org. The system ensures that people working in factories and other noisy environments can only switch on their machines if they are wearing hearing protection. Sensors attached to the machinery decide whether the proper protection is in place and the protection also turns off the machinery by wireless remote, if needed. Best of all, the solution is affordable for businesses – a central unit to serve some 30 employees costs approximately 900 euro. The young inventor used his 5,000-euro prize to patent his invention.
Bad Noise, Bad Noise
Be loud, go to jail. That was the verdict of the High Court in Barcelona, Spain, which recently sentenced a bar owner who had repeatedly ignored noise pollution laws to four years in prison. Dionisio Mestre, operator of “El Portet” bar and restaurant, was also ordered to pay 32,000 euro as compensation for damages suffered by neighbors and a fine of 8,640 euro. However, even as he was sentencing Mestre to prison, the judge in the case also issued a harsh warning to the city council for failing to take any steps to limit the noise, despite repeated complaints by neighbors of the establishment. According to Spanish newspaper El Pais (www.elpais.es), the sentence is the harshest ever handed down in Spain for noise pollution.
India in Infancy on Newborn Screening
Whereas advocates of newborn hearing screening in the United States are strategizing to reach the last three percent to bring universal screening to 100 percent nationwide, in India, advocates would celebrate even three percent screening nationwide. The southern Indian city of Kochi is the first in India to routinely screen infants for hearing impairment, reports www.hear-it.org. The new program of the Kochi Child Care Centre of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics met with immediate results. Of 400 newborns screened, 25 were found to have hearing problems and seven have been fitted with hearing aids. Advocates hope the program will be adopted in all districts in that region of India.
