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Thread: Take Care Of Your Hearing.....

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    Take Care Of Your Hearing.....

    The good news is that I get to keep my hearing. The bad news is that it's costing me $5K to get the hearing aids I need for the type of hearing loss I have. I just wished I had known about hearing loss and causes early in my life. I was raised on a farm with tractors and such, loud lawn mowers and lawn tractors, chainsaws, weedeaters, gas blowers, power tools, wind noise from riding motorcycle as well as wind noise from riding/driving in a car/truck with the windows down (mainly because we didn't have a vehicle that had A/C in it) and loud music. Not to mention the noises I experienced when I was in the military "back in the day".

    I am thankful that I still have my hearing, my eye sight, my voice, and my limbs to walk and work with. I just had no idea about things like this....only to find out that getting old isn't for the faint of heart nor the thinly weighted wallet/bank account.

    So....my words of wisdom to you that are still young (10 thru 55 years old)....wear hearing protection. Take good care of your hearing!!!!
    Thanks & Happy Wood Chips,
    Dennis -
    Get the Benefits of Being an SMC Contributor..!
    ....DEBT is nothing more than yesterday's spending taken from tomorrow's income.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    Vancouver Canada
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    In my house it's a loosing battle, but one I keep on having with my family.
    I'm 74, never really went to rock concerts, keep custom fitted ear protection in my left pocket of my jeans.
    Still, time is eroding my hearing. I don't ride my Harley with ear plugs, but it's only because I havn't found good ones that are comfy for my ears on long rides.
    In the workshop, always.
    It's a battle.
    Young enough to remember doing it;
    Old enough to wish I could do it again.

  3. #3
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    I wake up every morning trying to figure out where the running water I keep hearing is coming from. I have even gone outside and looked for it. Turns out it’s a faint ringing in my right ear. It is faint enough that I only notice it in the quiet of morning. I worked around aircraft when younger, but was VERY meticulous with hearing protection- best available over ear worn clock in to clock out. Sadly, I’ve skimped from time to time with table saw and circular saw use. I am now diligent with hearing protection as well as eye and lung protection. Please, folks, listen to me (pun intended) while you can. Protect your parts.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    E TN, near Knoxville
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dennis Peacock View Post
    So....my words of wisdom to you that are still young (10 thru 55 years old)....wear hearing protection. Take good care of your hearing!!!!
    Good advice! Thank you for the reminder. A young girl from Israel berated a class full of woodturners at JCC (Frank Penta class) for not wearing hearing protection. (She came to visit the class and to get a magic wand from a famous wandmaker.) Until then I never really thought of woodturning as a particularly noisy activity.

    Around here, almost no one wears hearing protection. I cringe when I see utility workers, tree service people, guys mowing lawns, carpenter, etc. without hearing protection. Or eye protection...

    Amazon has plenty of great hearing protectors - I like the ear muff type. I even found some made to fit kids.

    JKJ

  5. #5
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    After 2 years of schools, I worked air traffic control maintenance for most of the remaining 6 years while in the US Navy. Being a young, indestructible male, though we were offered hearing protection, I don't remember ever using it. The last 8 months of my 8 years in the service, I worked on fast attack subs. When I took my "getting out, going home" physical, I had to take a hearing test. I was required to take it twice as the lady thought I was trying to get a pension for hearing loss. I had lost a lot of my high frequency hearing from driving up and down runways to get to GCA radars and across mat areas with jet engines running around me. Exposure to jet engine noise did affect my hearing but a disease caused me to wake up 8 years ago deaf.

    Good hearing aids are expensive. Cochlear implants are many times more expensive. I was deaf for 18 of the longest months of my life! Now with the aid of a cochlear implant in one ear and a very powerful hearing aid in the other ear, I have some hearing restored.



    Protect your hearing, wear safety glasses, use all safety devices on your tools, machines etc. If in doubt, if the little voice in your head says it not safe, listen to it!
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  6. #6
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    As I drive by construction sites, both commercial and residential I see numerous workers operating loud pieces of equipment with no hearing protection. I've often cautioned workers I encounter to get adequate hearing protection and usually they look at me like I have a third eye or came from another planet. I have some minor hearing loss and slight ringing in my ears and I always wear ear protection when I am using loud tools. Three years ago I purchased some 3M tactical ear plugs that I wear when hunting to protect my ears from the gun shot. They are electronic and so I can hear normal conversation and even the pheasants that flush behind me at times yet a gun shot is reduced to nearly nothing.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm Schweizer View Post
    I wake up every morning trying to figure out where the running water I keep hearing is coming from. I have even gone outside and looked for it. Turns out it’s a faint ringing in my right ear. It is faint enough that I only notice it in the quiet of morning.
    Presumably you are referring to tinnitus? I hear a florescent fixture with a bad ballast in my left ear.
    When I went to an audiologist, she sent me to an ENT because tinnitus in one ear is often caused by a brain tumor. (normally it is heard in both ears) Mine turned out not to be, but you might want to talk to someone about it.

    A friend went deaf in one ear, but developed tinnitus in it. Talk about being kicked when you are down!
    Last edited by Wade Lippman; 11-20-2018 at 8:55 PM.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wade Lippman View Post
    Presumably you are referring to tinnitus? I hear a florescent fixture with a bad ballast in my left ear.
    When I went to an audiologist, she sent me to an ENT because tinnitus in one ear is often caused by a brain tumor. (normally it is heard in both ears) Mine turned out not to be, but you might want to talk to someone about it.

    A friend went deaf in one ear, but developed tinnitus in it. Talk about being kicked when you are down!
    Deaf people often have tinnitus in their ears. Even with my cochlear implant and my hearing aid in my other ear, I often have tinnitus in one or both ears, after I remove my hearing devices. There are a number of unproven causes of tinnitus from allergies to weather fronts and on......and on... Of course there are always "experts" who claim to have knowledge or a cure and when it fails for some, the same experts have no answers. Tinnitus in my case varies from a high pitched hissing sound to the loud roar of a jet engine. Some times it makes it tough to get to sleep!
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  9. #9
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    fayetteville Arkansas
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    Great advice Dennis, hopefully the younger fellows will take notice and actively protect their hearing as well as eyesight. I was raised on a farm about 30 miles from you at Heber Springs and share all the same experiences, long hours on tractors, hay equipment, chainsaws, loud shop equipment, lots of gun fire, etc. all without hearing protection. After sudden deafness in 2014, I share the Cochlear experience with Ken.
    Last edited by julian abram; 11-20-2018 at 9:57 PM.

  10. #10
    Wait. Why is the young line drawn at 55?

    Seriously, good advice bro.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  11. #11
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    I find a logging helmet is great for all around protection. the face screen does not fog up and the ear protection is good. I like it when mowing the lawn as sun protection as well.
    Bil lD

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    I find a logging helmet is great for all around protection. the face screen does not fog up and the ear protection is good. I like it when mowing the lawn as sun protection as well.
    Bil lD
    I second that suggestion! I have two with the Stihl name and use them when chainsawing, weedwhacking, and when clearing brush and things on the tractor. The hard hat actually saved my head once on a tractor when a limb fell out of a tree. (Those limbs are called "widowmakers" for a reason. A neighbor needed 14 stitches on the top of his head after a branches from tree they were felling bumped another tree which bumped the third tree he was standing under.)

    JKJ

  13. #13
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    Hearing protection is an area where you really have to look beyond the hype, at least where firing-range-appropriate devices are concerned. You can pay a lot of money for electronic earmuffs that, when a loud noise like a gunshot occurs, simply turn off the microphone and become barely-adequate inert earmuffs. Good earmuffs and even foam earplugs can offer about 32db of protection. Many of the expensive electronic devices only give 24-26db of protection. I also saw a Winchester-branded earmuff that claimed good protection but when I read the fine print I saw that it's only at higher frequencies. The lower frequencies are where you need the protection more.

    I agree about protecting your hearing. Having largely gotten away with a lot of carelessness in the past, I'm taking care of what I still have.

    You've probably heard the one about "What's the most common thing you hear on a gun range?" "What'd you say?"

  14. #14
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    When I was in the army in the early 70's they gave us bits of cotton wadding to shove in our ears, Guess what, it doesn't work so now I have Tinnitus which when the levels were tested is reckoned to be the loudest the tester has encountered. I did not think anything of the noise in my head until I saw a doco on TV showing some experimental treatments many years ago. The only time I can't hear it is when the table saw or thicknesser is going.
    Chris

    Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening

  15. #15
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    Dennis, I can see myself having to follow that path at some point, too. My right ear has limited frequency and "loudness" capability for many years now and I suspect my left (my "good ear") is losing a little bit due to normal aging. Both of my parents needed hearing assistance, too. 'Hope to "hear" that you're hearing better soon!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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