Hear this!

Name: --

Do your ears ring after you mow the lawn? Or do you suffer from temporary hearing loss after a rock concert? According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, more than 30 million people in the U.S. are chronically exposed to loud noise. And intense sound waves from hazardous noise levels can destroy hair cells in the inner ear (see p. 20). Once damaged, the hair cells never fully recover. Repeated exposure may kill them, which may lead to irreversible noise-induced hearing loss; a condition already suffered by 10 million Americans.

Directions: A decibel (db) is a unit that measures the intensity (or loudness) of sound. A sound of 30 db is 10 times more intense than one of 20 db. A noise of 40 db is 100 times more intense than one of 20 db. Believe it or not, an alarm clock is 10,000 times more intense than a quiet room! How much noise are you taking in? Use the data table below to record some of the sounds you may encounter each day. Look up the decibel level on the chart to your right. Then evaluate: Is each sound safe or harmful, necessary or unnecessary?

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