Hunters hearing protection

Hearing Protection for Hunters – Practical and Affordable Solutions for All Types of Hunting

Did you know that the muzzle blast from a rifle or shotgun can be in excess of 140 decibels (dB)? And that this amount of noise is a thousand times louder than 80dB which is considered the level at which noise induced hearing damage occurs?

Exposure to just a single blast can cause permanent hearing loss. When one considers the multitude of shots fired from a dove field or from a duck blind, the effect on unprotected hearing can be devastating.

So what can you do to protect your hearing while at the same time partaking in your annual hunting heritage? The answer is the use of hearing protection devices such as foam or custom-molded ear plugs.

Notice I did not suggest the use of ear muffs. While these can be used while hunting, they tend to be bulky, hot, and highly conspicuous to wary game. Also, I do …

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Young Ag Workers Chico CA

Youngsters in Agriculture Need to Protect Their Hearing, Too!

With agriculture being such a huge economic base here in the North State, it’s no wonder that a number of farmers and ranchers are patients of mine. Hearing loss due to exposure to loud machines and vehicles is pretty commonplace amongst those in ag. In fact, it is estimated that 80% of all farmers in the United States have some hearing loss.

What is troubling is that many – too many — of those farmers and ranchers are not the fifty-something or sixty-something year olds that one might expect. They are young people; some as young as grade school age!

How can that be? Simply that these young people get exposed to loud farm machinery at an early age. Couple that with the louder and louder environment that our society has become through use of devices like personal music systems and these youngsters in ag are getting the proverbial double …

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Baby Boomers – The Next Generation to Have Hearing Difficulties

For many of you between the ages of 46 to 64, your time is coming.

Time, that is, to experience what so many of your parents and grandparents came to learn of fist hand: hearing difficulties caused by exposure to excess loud noise.

The “Baby Boomer” generation – those Americans born between 1946 and 1960 – accounts for some 76 million of us in the Untied States today and at least 15 percent of Boomers already have hearing loss.

This is a far cry from the previous 2 generations, who typically did not show symptoms of hearing loss until they were in their 70’s and 80’s.  Indeed, when I was an audiology student at Minot State University earning my Master’s of Science degree I was taught that only men in their 70’s and 80’s got hearing loss.

What has changed?  Our world is now much, much louder.

An Unprecedented Century

Prior to …

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