Protecting Hearing for Life

As a member (retired status) of Speech-Language & Audiology Canada, I was honoured to have my article featured in Communique for World Hearing Day, 2022. The title and content of Protecting Hearing for Life reflects this year’s theme of, “To hear for life, listen with care.”

In summary, our modern society exposes us to harmfully loud noise from a very young age. This ranges from loud entertainment or leisure activities to environmental noise pollution. Personal listening alone is making noise-induced hearing loss a disease with childhood onset.

“Preventing noise is better for society and less expensive than the long-term healthcare and socioeconomic costs of hearing damage…It’s never too early or too late to protect hearing for life from harmful noise doses.“