Don't play it by ear

Hearing loss can have a devastating impact on day-to-day life, making ear protection a non-negotiable piece of field kit

- Charlotte Mackaness

"GUNS OF my generation tended not to wear ear defenders, which is why most of us are now deaf," says Sir Johnny Scott wryly. "It just wasn't considered the done thing when I was young but now I advise everyone to wear them." Shoots are noisy places, and those involved - regardless of whether they ever even pick up a gun - should never underestimate the potential, permanent damage that can be done.

"It's never too late to start wearing hearing protection," insists Richard McKearney, an audiology adviser from the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). "Indeed, it is all the more important that those who have already experienced some damage protect the hearing they still have. Over 18 million people in the UK have some kind of hearing loss or tinnitus: that's one in three. The impact isn't restricted to hearing; the knock-on effects associated with it include loneliness, mental health problems and even dementia."

According to McKearney, there are two main aspects in hearing damage: the loudness of the sound and then the duration. "Any single noise, if loud enough, can damage hearing but the more one is exposed, the greater the risk. What happens is that loud noises cause stress on what are known colloquially as the 'hair cells' inside our organ of hearing, called the cochlea," he explains. "They can become overstimulated and then die. In humans, they don't grow back. Put bluntly, once hearing loss occurs this way, it is irreversible.

"People are very keen on numbers but sound-related hearing loss is complicated. However, a rough guide is that anything over 85 decibels (dB) can cause harm," he says. "A rule of thumb is to ask whether you'd be able to hear a chat with someone two metres away with the 'noise' you're being exposed to going on."