Join us to raise awareness for hearing loss prevention
Our hearing is precious. It connects us with friends and family. It enhances our life and learning experiences, both as children and adults. It can be essential for school and the workplace. Hearing loss has been directly linked to delays in communication development in children and may impede academic achievement. It also has been linked to social isolation, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and even reduced earning power.
Taking one day to recognize how difficult it is to live with hearing loss gives you a chance to consider the ways you take care of your hearing throughout the year, in all types of potentially harmful listening situations.
Register with your email and mailing address. You will receive information on how to protect your hearing and your One Day Without Sound Kit, including noise-reduction earplugs, for use on Friday, May 31, 2022. May is Better Hearing Month — a great time to reflect on how we take care of our hearing.
Refer your friends and ask them to take the pledge with you! Let them know how precious their hearing is and how they can prevent noise-induced hearing loss.
Our hearing is precious. It connects us with friends and family. It enhances our life and learning experiences, both as children and adults. It can be essential for school and the workplace. Hearing loss has been directly linked to delays in communication development in children and may impede academic achievement. It also has been linked to social isolation, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and even reduced earning power.
Taking one day to recognize how difficult it is to have a hearing impairment gives us a chance to consider the ways we take care of our hearing throughout the year, in all types of potentially harmful listening situations.
The hearing protection in your kit will reduce the level of noise you hear but will not eliminate sound completely. Wear them as you can on May 31 for One Day Without Sound to raise your own awareness of the sounds around you. Take note of how your hearing connects you to your work, your family, and your environment. Take pictures and post on social media of your #ONEDAY experience.
While these earplugs are disposable, you can reuse them. Keep your earplugs in a place where you can easily retrieve them if you’ll be exposed to excessive noise levels. Typical situations include attending concerts, using power tools or outdoor machinery, watching fireworks, and hunting or shooting. Protecting and conserving the hearing you have now should be a way of life, not just an exercise for one day!
Your noise-reduction earplugs will fit most ears. They compress while you insert them into your ear canal and then expand when you release them.
The earplugs are rated to reduce up to 25 decibels of sound, if inserted properly, and may be used once or multiple times. Keep in mind that the earplugs will not completely block out sound. For directions on inserting and removing your earplugs, please see the visual description on the container, or watch the video guide.
It may not be practical or appropriate to eliminate every sound you hear for the entire day. You can take the pledge to spend the day without nonessential sound by turning off your radio and TV or eliminating unnecessary phone conversations.
Encourage quiet activities, such as reading, at home during the evening. The goal should be to experience what people who have hearing loss feel each day of their lives by eliminating nonessential sounds for one day.
The inner ear contains microscopic hair cells that respond to mechanical sound vibrations received by the ear and then send electrical signals to the auditory nerve.
Excessive noise can damage these hair cells, and if enough hair cells are damaged, hearing loss results. Unfortunately, hearing loss caused by noise is usually permanent.
The hearing protection in your kit will reduce the level of noise you hear but will not eliminate sound completely. Keep your earplugs in a place where you can easily retrieve them if you’ll be exposed to excessive noise levels.
Typical situations include attending concerts, using power tools or outdoor machinery, watching fireworks and hunting or shooting. Protecting and conserving the hearing you have now should be a way of life, not just an exercise for one day!
