20 Protect Your Hearing

Is your roommate’s stereo playing too loud? Is the neighbor’s leaf blower driving you crazy? The world seems to be getting noisier all the time. And you need to be concerned about it. All those loud sounds may actually damage your ears.

Noise can affect your hearing in two ways. A very loud noise very close to the ear can injure it right away. An example might be the sound from a high-powered rifle. A loud blast like this can leave scars on your inner ear tissues. You will hear less well as a result. (That is why people at shooting ranges wear coverings to protect their ears.)

Much hearing damage comes more slowly. It occurs over a period of time. You have probably heard of people in rock bands who lose their hearing. The constant loud noise gradually damages their ears. But this can happen to other people as well. Loud noise comes from fireworks, from car horns in traffic, even from vacuum cleaners. Too much of any of these can affect your hearing.

How can people protect their ears? One way is to use earplugs. Is the concert so loud that you can’t hear what your friend is saying? Put the plugs in. And sometimes give your ears a rest. Go to that noisy basketball game tonight. But don’t run your lawn mower tomorrow morning.

As people grow older, their hearing skills gradually decrease. This is a fairly natural phenomenon. But hearing loss by age thirty is not natural. You can avoid it if you are careful.

你的室友的立体声音响放得太大声了吗？邻居的吹叶机是不是快把你逼疯了？这个世界似乎越来越吵了。而你需要关注这个问题，所有那些 loud 声音实际上可能损害你的耳朵。

噪音会以两种方式影响你的听力。非常 loud 且离耳朵很近的噪音会立即损伤耳朵。比如大功率步枪的声音就是一个例子。这样的 loud 爆炸声会在你的内耳组织上留下疤痕，结果你的听力会变差。（这就是为什么射击场的人会戴防护用具来保护耳朵。）

许多听力损伤是逐渐形成的，会在一段时间内发生。你可能听说过摇滚乐队里的人听力受损的事，持续的 loud 噪音会逐渐损害他们的耳朵。但其他人也可能遇到这种情况。噪音来自烟花、交通中的汽车喇叭，甚至吸尘器。这些声音听多了都会影响你的听力。

人们如何保护自己的耳朵呢？一种方法是使用耳塞。音乐会太 loud 以至于你听不清朋友在说什么？那就戴上耳塞。有时候也让你的耳朵休息一下。今晚去看那场吵闹的篮球赛，但明天早上就别用你的割草机了。

随着人们年龄的增长，他们的听力技能会逐渐下降，这是一个相当自然的现象。但三十岁就听力下降就不自然了，如果你小心的话，是可以避免的。