According to the WHO, unaddressed hearing loss is the third largest cause of years lived with disability. An estimated US$ 1 trillion is lost every year due to occupational hearing loss. This may be due to the invisible nature of hearing loss. We can help you shift to the healthy side.
Daily exposure to noise may eventually cause hearing impairment – for some people even is exposure is below the harmful zone. Every day of continued exposure may add up to permanent hearing loss, without you even realizing the noise level was harmful in the first place. Unfortunately, noise-induced hearing loss is accumulative, so the damage gets worse every time you’re exposed to it.
It may take years before you notice the negative effects of continuous noise exposure. And by the time you do, it is often too late! Besides permanent hearing loss, you may unknowingly expose yourself to the risk of tinnitus (the perception of sound that does not have an external source) or hyperacusis (high sensitivity to certain sounds). It is therefore important to take the right measures against workplace noise, immediately.
Occupational hearing loss has been referred to as “the invisible disability,” not only because of the lack of visible symptoms, but because the danger of noise exposure has been largely overlooked by employers and employees: “What we can’t see doesn’t exist.” Fortunately, attitudes are changing with increasing awareness – yet unaddressed hearing loss remains the third largest cause of years lived with disability.
Even noise that is not directly harmful to our hearing could nevertheless be harmful to us as humans. Psychological effects of noise include fatigue or irritability, effects we may not even associate with noise exposure ourselves. There are also other common physiological effects to noise exposure besides hearing loss, including increased heart rate, blood pressure or amounts of stress hormones.
As the effects of noise on humans are individual, it is wise to take workplace noise seriously and apply the precautionary principle when assessing the need for hearing protection. Measuring the noise level throughout the workplace is the only way to make sure that each employee is safely protected against noise. Sordin can help your organization move to the safe side by providing high-quality hearing protectors for your employees, along with our acoustics expertise as support.
Sordin is a Swedish company with more than 30 years' experience of developing, manufacturing and selling professional hearing protection equipment.