Turning up the volume about hearing loss

One exposure to loud sounds can cause problem

- BY SEAN MURPHY

WORLD Noise Day organisers want people to clearly hear doctors' warnings about how easy it is to suffer irreparable hearing loss.

They are shouting the message that permanent damage can happen to us very easily.

Research in Ireland suggests one million people here may be regularly exposed to noise levels above mandatory reporting thresholds set by the EU.

Residents in cities like Dublin, Cork and Limerick are already exposed to dangerous noise levels, according to the research.

But it is not just environmental noise, because the findings also show a large volume of young people in all settings, urban and rural, will experience hearing loss due to listening to earphones at too loud a setting.

Damage can even be caused in a noisy nightclub just by someone roaring in your ear a loudness recorded at 100 decibels.

Decibels of over 140 can cause hearing loss from just one exposure.

That is one of the key warning messages for today's officially titled International Noise Awareness Day.