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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Sunday December 24, 2006 - 25 Students given Sound Sense on noise By Sabrina Byrnes OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Noise is the most rapidly increasing threat to children's hearing today, but the Grade 6 students at Pine Grove Public School now have more `sound sense' to take the necessary steps in preserving their hearing. Gail Hannan, Program Consultant for The Hearing Foundation of Canada, gave a presentation to the Grade 6 students Monday morning entitled Sound Sense: Save Your Hearing for the Music. The program was introduced in October 2005 and fits into the Ontario Grade 6 Healthy Living-Injury Prevention Curriculum. The presentation involves a 10minute video featuring `Spike,' an animated character, and his musician friends. The program uses music to educate the students about the sense of hearing and how it works. It teaches them how to protect their hearing to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. "Noise-Induced Hearing Loss is the fastest growing type of hearing loss today," said Hannan who suffers from hearing loss herself. "Hearing loss is actually occurring a generation younger than it used to," she said, noting that hearing loss is usually expected in people in their 60s and 70s. "We're really seeing a huge increase in people in their 40s and 50s. We know a lot of that has to do with noise." Studies have shown that 25 per cent of people in their mid 20s have some degree of hearing loss, Hannan said. At the start of the presentation, Hannan had asked the children the kind of sounds they loved. Music, laughter, the ocean, birds singing as well as sound effects on video games and people cheering at a hockey game were a few of the sounds mentioned. The presentation showed the children SABRINA BYRNES / OAKVILLE BEAVER A QUESTION: Gail Hannan, Program Consultant for The Hearing Foundation of Canada, leans in to hear Aleksia Pavlovic ask a question during Hannan's presentation to Grade 6 students at Pine Grove Public School Monday called Sound Sense, which was to make students more aware of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and steps they could take to ensure that doesn't happen to them. how sound is measured in decibels. "The considered safe zone is 85 decibels (dB)," Hannan said. You can listen to something at 85 dB for eight hours safely. Anything louder can do damage over long, repeated exposure. Normal talking voice is measured at 60 dB, but yelling or shouting can be 90 dB. Hannan said that a Stanley Cup playoff game with loud cheering fans was measured at 105 dB. That kind of noise can only be listened to safely for 15 minutes. Every 3 dB is double the noise and your exposure time needs to be cut in half for safe listening. "Not every hockey game is that loud, but during a Stanley Cup play-off game and the fans are cheering, the games get really loud," Hannan said. The damage won't occur overnight, but damage to the hair cells in the inner ear can occur over long, repeated exposure causing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss. "That type of hearing loss is permanent," Hannan said. "The other thing that's a real issue, is noisy toys," Hannan noted. She recalled a toy piggy bank that was given to her son that made a noise every time a coin was dropped in the bank. The noise measured 100 dB. "Parents need to be aware that, especial- ly with young children they put it close to their ear, and the noise sometimes, it can cause real damage." Loud music is another issue according to Hannan, saying that children need to limit how long they spend listening to it. A lot of children will listen to headphones while they do their homework. During the presentation two students volunteered to wear headphones as they listened to music and Hannan measured how loud the students raised the volume to what they thought was comfortable listening. The two students raised the volume to a safe dB, but M.P.P. Kevin Flynn, who attended the presentation, raised his volume to 95 dB, which is above the safe zone. Hannan compared it to placing your ear right beside the motor of a motorcycle. "Each player is different, what might be 95 (dB) on one, might only be 90 on the other. In terms of where you are putting it on the dial," Hannan explained. "If your child is listening to music and they can't hear what you are saying to them in a normal voice, then they are listening to it to loud. Or if you can hear the music coming from the headphones, then it's too loud," noted Hannan. Preferred headphones are the ones that sit on top of the ears. The earbugs that sit inside the ear are not recommended because they sit in closer to your eardrum. Hannan noted that some children would share the earbugs where each child is listening in one ear, but that is also potentially damaging because one ear is exposed to outer noise, causing the child to raise the volume that much louder on their head phones. The Hearing Foundation of Canada wants to make teachers and parents more aware of this issue because the environment children are in is much noisier now. Hannan said that schools are noisier, See Noise page 26 ONE DAY ONLY Tuesday December 26th, from 11:00am to 7:00pm moonlight BOXING DAY CARPET GOOD BETTER BEST Annual Sale! EVENT DOOR CRASHER First 30 Customers Will Receive a 11am 11am - 2pm madness 69 99 2 ¢ ** ¢$ ** ** 49 ** CLOSETS SHELVING DRAWERS 20% Off The Storage Specialists THIS ONLY HAPPENS ONCE A YEAR! 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