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Showing posts with the label decibels

Can Your Job Give You Tinnitus?

The short answer here is yes, your job can give you tinnitus. Exposure to noise at work is a significant occupational hazard.  A study done in the UK shows that during a typical year, almost five per cent of food manufacture workers suffer from ill health caused by or made worse by work. That's more than twice the number that suffer from a reportable injury at work. One of the main causes? Hearing loss. In order to maintain your hearing, protection is necessary when working with noise levels measuring over 80 decibels. Some typical noise levels associated with common tasks in the food industry include:  - Wrapping, cutting wrap, bagging, etc: 85-95dB - Milling operations: 85-100dB - Blast chillers/freezers: 85-107dB - Packaging machinery: 85-95dB Occupational noise-induced hearing loss including tinnitus is a totally preventable condition ; however, once the damage has been done there is no way of reversing the effects.  If your company does not attempt to control noise at the so

Who Gets Tinnitus?

Tinnitus can affect anyone ; however, older people are usually affected more than children . If a child does have tinnitus, it's possible that he or she might not be bothered by the condition as much as an adult, simply because children tend accept the condition as the norm, not knowing anything different.  Kids and adults alike can suffer hearing damage and loss, though, and are at risk for tinnitus as well, if they are consistently exposed to very loud noises . You'll know if you're at risk if you need to shout to be heard (like at most concerts or bars and discos, but also at sporting events) or if your ears actually hurt.  How many of us haven't experienced that "muted" hearing phenomenon after leaving a rock concert ?  Although a one-time exposure to loud noise does not necessarily cause tinnitus, it's certainly possible that the cumulative damage from even short-lived incidents of loud noise exposure over the years can be quite serious. A comparis