Hearing Damage Number 1 Disability in U.S. Vets

We won the war, but many veterans lost their hearing. Many sailors, marines, and airmen are inducted into service with excellent hearing and return with a range of hearing challenges. While most people lose their hearing gradually over several years, veterans are regularly exposed to instances that can cause damage to hearing.

Regular and repeated noise exposure damages the sensitive and intricate hair cells of the inner ear that translate sound vibrations into voices, music, and other sounds. Hair cells in the ear do not grow back, since they are highly developed, end-stage cells. In war, soldiers are caught in roadside bombings and firefights, and exposed to high pressure in deep waters and loud noises from vehicles, aircraft, and machinery.

These conditions have made hearing damage the number one disability resulting from the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the recent wars, nearly 70,000 are collecting disability for tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that can be debilitating. Over 58,000 troops are on disability for hearing loss.

Reducing Hearing Loss Risks

Hearing damage has increasingly become a greater risk of ground-based combat ever since explosive devices and advanced weaponry was introduced. The US military now issues earplugs for soldiers serving in the field. But combat situations can escalate unexpectedly. A firefight or ambush can often arise so quickly, there's no time to don one's hearing protection. Some soldiers also refuse to wear the ear protection because it limits their situational awareness, making them less aware of sounds that could save their lives.

Among the hearing protection solutions available, there is the Etymotic Research earplug technology that allows soldiers to reduce the risk of hearing damage while retaining the ability to detect and determine where a sound is located. Since this situational awareness is critical to maintaining safety in combat conditions, the EB15 device actively adjusts the protection level depending on the level of noise in the environment, thanks to the adaptive attenuation circuitry of the EB15 (attenuation is the opposite of amplification). So the EB15 can become a 15-dB earplug when higher noise levels increase the risk of hearing damage. This unique attribute protects the user from loud continuous noise, such as noise caused by machinery and vehicles, and from unexpected impulse noise, such as gunfire and explosions. But when no loud noise is present, the EB15 returns to natural hearing, as if nothing is in the ear to block sound. The EB15 also has a switch to boost faint sounds. With practice, most users are expected to experience normal situational awareness wearing the EB15 earplug technology, and to experience elevated hearing protection when needed.

Finding Hearing Loss Solutions

Although the military has increasingly attempted to provide effective earplugs that are easy to use, and education on hearing protection, these solutions can only go so far to preventing hearing damage. Damage can occur at 80 to 85 decibels, about the sound level of a tank in motion. The best protection reduces this level of noise by only 20 to 25 decibels, which is not enough to protect against gunfire or explosions that produce 183 decibels or more.

The numbers are staggering for veterans with hearing damage. 60 percent of U.S. service personnel exposed to explosions suffer permanent hearing loss. 49 percent also suffer from tinnitus, according to military audiology reports. Hearing damage ranges from mild, trouble hearing whispers or low pitches, to severe, total deafness or a constant ringing that disrupts concentration.

There is no known cure for tinnitus or hearing loss. However, there are treatments and technologies that can allow people to live better with hearing loss. Advances in digital technology have made it possible to recover sounds. Digital devices cannot bring a person’s hearing back fully, but they can amplify sounds to make them clearer and compensate for specific frequency-range losses.

To find out which hearing equipment or devices are best for a specific hearing challenge, veterans can start by having a hearing test, or an audiogram. A qualified audiologist can determine what is and is not being heard, and then recommend options for compensating for different types of hearing loss. Equipment choices are a highly personal matter. You may decide to choose a hearing aid to help you hear better. Or you may benefit from other assistive hearing technologies, such as phone call amplifiers, signal alerts that turn everyday sounds (doorbells, phone ringers) into flashing lights or vibrations, and/or a personal television amplifier.

See also:

Audiometric thresholds and prevalence of tinnitus among male veterans in the United States: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2006. Department of Veterans Affairs, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, Volume 48, Number 5, 2011, Pages 503-516.

National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research. Calendar year 2009 annual benefits report. Portland, OR. Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development; 2010.

Tackling a Growing Problem for Veterans. Vanguard. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nov/Dec 2008. www1.va.gov/opa/publications/vanguard/08novdecVG.pdf

Severe Hearing Impairment Among Military Veterans, United States, 2010. July 22, 2011 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6028a4.htm?s_cid=mm6028a4_w

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9735

http://www.hearingreview.com/issues/articles/HPR_2008-05_06.asp

http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/faq/

http://www.etymotic.com/hp/eb15.html