Gare aux effets des baladeurs MP3 sur l'audition

Les baladeurs MP3 d'aujourd'hui ont envoyé le Walkman au rayon des antiquités: il est maintenant possible d'écouter de la musique de bonne qualité pendant des heures et à des volumes de son élevés. Souvent trop élevés. 

Et les spécialistes sont de plus en plus inquiets des conséquences néfastes pour l'audition des adolescents avec l'apparition de plus en plus précoce de baisse sensible de l'audition, que certains appellent même une «épidémie de troubles auditifs».

Un adolescent sur quatre est à risque d'une perte d'audition résultant directement de ses habitudes d'écoute avec son baladeur, affirme ainsi le Pr Chava Muchnik, de la Tel Aviv University au terme de son étude, publiée dans l'International Journal of Audiology. 

Près de 289 adolescents, entre 13 et 17 ans, ont participé à l'étude. Ils ont été interrogés sur leurs habitudes d'écoute avec leur iPod ou autre baladeur MP3. Et en particulier sur le niveau sonore et la durée d'utilisation. Dans un deuxième temps, le volume du son des baladeurs a été mesuré chez 74 adolescents dans un environnement calme puis dans un environnement bruyant. Les volumes mesurés ont servi à établir les risques potentiels pour l'audition des adolescents.

Près de 80 % des adolescents participants à l'étude utilisaient leur baladeur très régulièrement, 21 % d'entre eux l'écoutant de 1 à 4 heures, et 8 % s'en servant plus de 4 heures consécutivement.

«Dans 10 ou 20 ans, estime le Pr Muchnik, il sera trop tard et on verra que toute une jeune génération souffre de surdités partielles beaucoup plus tôt qu'attendu en fonction du vieillissement». Elle recommande ainsi que tous les pays adoptent, pour commencer, les normes européennes qui limitent à 100 décibels le volume maximal des iPod et des baladeurs MP3, dont certains, non «bridés», peuvent atteindre près de 130 décibels. Mais 100 dB, cela équivaut déjà au niveau acoustique d'une boîte de nuit. Et l'on sait qu'un risque pour l'oreille est déjà avéré à partir de 80 dB. Les spécialistes recommandent que des campagnes de prévention soient menées pour sensibiliser les enfants et les parents aux dangers de ces décibels.

Info sur Le Figaro SANTÉ

It's all gone Pete Tong - how to be a DJ with a hearing disorder

"Its All Gone Pete Tong" is a comedy based on a true story and Winner of Best Feature Film at Toronto Film Festival and Gen Art Film Festival. Paul Kaye stars as Frankie Wilde, the legendary British DJ and musical mastermind of the underground club scene whose career is cut down at its pinnacle by unthinkable tragedy - the loss of his hearing. 

The story takes us through Frankie's battle with his hearing disorder: he is rapidly going deaf with only one functioning ear to complete the new Ibiza season. Frankie dives into a low period, struggling with deafness in utter depression. After a year of locking himself away he emerges on the other side with a fresh attitude towards his affliction. He accepts his deafness and learns to function without sound. Will Frankie make it back to the DJ booth? Will his new single be any good? Will he get back his opulent old life or does he even want it back? When you can't hear, things look very different.

Info from Amazon and IMDb

MARVEL designed a superhero to help a 4-year-old with hearing loss

A 4-year-old boy in Salem who decided he did not want to wear his blue hearing aid to school anymore received some new inspiration after Marvel Comics designed a superhero after him.

Christina D’Allesandro said her son Anthony Smith cannot hear out of his right ear and has hearing loss in his left ear. She said Anthony woke up one day and decided that he did not want to wear his blue hearing aid.

“Basically, one day he woke up and I said, ‘OK, time to put in your hearing aid,’ and said, ‘Let’s put in blue ear.’ We’ve always called it that. And he said, ‘No, superheroes don’t wear blue ears,’” D’Allesandro said.

D’Allesandro assured her son that superheroes did wear hearing aids. She said she wanted to make sure, so she emailed the experts at Marvel Comics in New York City. Marvel sent back a comic book cover featuring Hawkeye, a superhero who lost his hearing. D’Allesandro said her son was captivated by the image. Marvel then sent a drawing of a new superhero inspired by Anthony: Blue Ear. Another sketch arrived portraying Hawkeye and Blue Ear together.

Anthony’s grandfather, N.H. Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, said he was happy to hear of Marvel’s help.

“This is a feel-good moment. This is a feel-good story, and we’ve got to get the world to recognize that,” he said.

Christina D’Allesandro said Anthony, like Blue Ear, is proud to wear his hearing aid and share his good news with others at his school for children with hearing loss. The school had a superhero week, and a costume has been ordered for Anthony. D’Allesandro said she hopes to finally meet and thank the heroes at Marvel Comics someday.

Info accessed at Hearing Aid Center

Dangerous new teen trend on hearing loss VS technology

Is a fact that loud music causes permanent, irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. But there’s a very important — and dangerous — new trend we’re seeing with today’s youth: in the video below (produced by high schoolers) you can see that the boy at 1:00 and the girl at 1:18 have the attitude that “technology will fix the problem”. The prevalence of teen hearing loss increased from 14.9% in 1994 to 19.5% in 2006.

Info acceed at The Hearing Blog

Noise is one of the great underappreciated health hazards of our time

Noise is no minor nuisance. It is one of the great underappreciated health hazards of our time—the secondhand smoke of our ears.

Noise pollution doesn't get the attention of A-list diseases, but there are a few crusaders raising their voices against the onslaught. One of them is Arline Bronzaft, a professor emeritus at the City University of New York.

What's the problem with this high-decibel world? "The most obvious one is hearing loss," Dr. Bronzaft says. Some 26 million adults are walking around with noise-induced hearing loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Noise also has a surprisingly potent effect on our stress level, cardiovascular system and concentration. In Paleo times, a loud noise signaled a threat, so noise triggers the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which raises blood pressure.

A University of British Columbia review of 6,300 people who work in noisy jobs found that they suffer two to three times more heart problems than those who work in quiet settings. A former World Health Organization official estimates (with a bit of alarmism) that noise-induced strain may cause 45,000 deadly heart attacks a year.

Noise also wreaks havoc on the brain. Dr. Bronzaft conducted a landmark study at a public school in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, published in the journal Environment and Behavior in 1975. Some of the classrooms directly faced an elevated subway track. Every five minutes the students heard a train rattle by. Other classrooms were tucked on the opposite side of the building, away from the noise. The difference? By the sixth grade, the kids on the noisy side were nearly a year behind. Since then, her conclusions about the effects of noise on concentration have been backed up by a pile of other studies, on both students and adults.

Adapted from (and more info at) The Wall Street Journal

Image at http://www.websuccessteam.com/WSTblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/iStock_000000405992XSmall.jpg

Seven Tips to Better Communication by Arlene Romoff

Holiday season can be especially difficult for people with hearingloss. Here are Seven Tips to Better Communication,

- for those with hearing loss

- for those who contact in the daily life with people with hearing loss, and that can also improve their communicative processes.

1. Realize that large social groups, especially around a large dining room table, are one of the most difficult environments for a person with a hearing loss.

Be kind to yourself. Focus on the positive things that you can do, and not on the negatives of what you have difficulty doing. Think the glass is half full, not half empty.

2. It’s easier to talk with people one-on-one in a quiet environment than in a noisy living room. So:

• Find a favorite friend or relative, and move the conversation into a quiet room, or a quieter corner. Or play a game or read a story to a child, if that’s an option.
• Help out in the kitchen where there are usually less people gathered. And if you help with some preparations, you'll be doing something besides trying to hear

3. When sitting down to dinner, make sure you choose a seat that is best for you!

Here are some seating suggestions:

• If you have a “better side,” seat yourself so that most people are on that side. • Seat yourself next to a person you usually have the least difficulty hearing or lipreading (avoid those folks with bushy mustaches and beards!)
• Seat yourself next to someone who usually has the patience to clue you in on what the conversation is about, or the punch lines you'll miss.
• Try not to seat yourself facing a window because the glare could make it difficult to see people's faces.
• Ask your host to turn off any background music during dinner. And if a football game is blaring from a TV, turn it off or if that’s not an option, set it on mute.
• Remember to be assertive about your needs! Pleasant and polite, but assertive!

4. Conversation tips:

• It’s inevitable that you will not be able to hear the conversation with many people talking and laughing at once. Content yourself with speaking with the people on either side of you.
• If you start a conversation, then you’ll know what the topic is, so it will be easier to follow.
• If you miss something, try to ask only for the part you missed, instead of just saying “what?”
• Expect that there will be jokes that you will not hear, so you will find yourself sitting at a table where everyone is laughing except you. Stay calm—you have a few options: — ask the person next to you to tell you what was so funny — ask the person next to you to remember what was so funny so they can tell you later. — say “excuse me” to everyone at the table, and ask for the joke to be repeated so you can get it too. Remember that if you do this with a pleasant attitude, then people will usually want to help you out.

5. After–dinner strategies:

• Volunteer to help out in the kitchen to get yourself away from that dining table with all the conversations and jokes you’re having trouble following. Do not offer to wash the dishes! This will put your back to everyone in the kitchen and you won't be able to lipread. Offer to dry the dishes or put food away. Or just keep everyone company.
• Offer to wash the dishes if you want to take time out from trying to hear everyone, and you still want to feel useful.

6. To drink or not to drink?

Some people's lipreading skills tend to get worse when they drink. Some people's lip-reading skills tend to get better when they drink because they're more relaxed. And, of course, there are pros and cons of drinking that impact on mood. Be aware of what works best for you. And remember, if you do drink, do so responsibly and never drink and drive.

7. Assistive listening devices.

There are assistive listening devices, such as personal amplifiers and auxiliary microphones that can help you hear in noisy environments. These can work either in conjunction with your hearing aid or cochlear implant, or directly into your ears. They have been particularly helpful for older relatives who are left out of the loop in large family gatherings.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

Info at Seven Tips for Better Communication

Image at http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTsnPsjx3qbE1UirJX5RBM-ZjB9XKScw56Zr6ZTQ9I5lnDjGaHK

Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss (AAMHL)

Proving the loss of hearing does not equal the loss of music!

AAMHL's mission is to:

1. Create opportunities for adult musicians with hearing loss to discuss the challenges they face in making and listening to music.
2. Create opportunities for public performance either individually or in groups by adult musicians with hearing loss who might not otherwise have access to these opportunities
3. Provide ongoing feedback to hearing health professionals, hearing researchers, manufacturers of hearing assistive technology, music educators and others to improve hearing device technology relative to music performance and enjoyment
4. Provide educational opportunities to enable hard of hearing and deaf adults to appreciate and make music in ways not previously available

AAMHL's initiatives include:

• Print and mail informational brochures about AAMHL
• Create hearing-accessible conferences and workshops on making music with a hearing loss
• Produce hearing accessible concerts by both hearing and hearing impaired musicians
• Produce recordings of performances by hearing-impaired musicians
• Produce informational materials on listening to music with a hearing loss and listings of hearing-accessible performance venues

If you're interested, please visit http://www.aamhl.org/joomla10/

Flinstones demonstram perda auditiva

Um exemplo simples da diminuição da acuidade auditiva

Músicos de Rock: profissionais em risco

O ruído é um dos principais agentes físicos presentes nos ambientes de trabalho pelo que se torna um dos maiores focos de atenção por parte dos profissionais de higiene e segurança da saúde do trabalhador.

Todos os sons têm potencial de serem descritos como ruído, pois a classificação de ruído trata-se de algo subjectivo, sendo a sua distinção referente ao facto de ser ou não desejável. Todavia, a denominação ruído é utilizada para descrever um sinal acústico aperiódico, originado da superposição de vários movimentos de vibração, com diferentes frequências, as quais não apresentam relação entre si.

A música é considerada como um som agradável. Sons prazerosos (como a música) são menos perigosos do que os sons não desejados (como o ruído industrial), mas não deixam de ser um factor de risco para perdas auditivas.

O estudo de Pfeiffer, Rocha, Oliveira & Frota (2007) tem como objectivo verificar a mudança temporária do limiar de audição em músicos durante um concerto de rock. Foram avaliados seis músicos, componentes de uma banda de rock, do sexo masculino, com idades variando entre 20 e 30 anos. Constatou-se que a exposição a elevados níveis de pressão sonora leva à ocorrência de certos efeitos físicos, como a insónia após o trabalho, a perda auditiva temporária e aparecimento do zumbido, apontados pelos músicos da amostra do estudo após o concerto.

Em 2004, foi estudada a diminuição da audição em DJ’s, por meio da audiometria tonal e da aplicação de um questionário. A pesquisa foi realizada com o objectivo de constatar a mudança temporária de limiar desses profissionais após uma noite de trabalho. Comprovou-se que estes profissionais devem ser inseridos no grupo de trabalhadores com risco de perda auditiva induzida por níveis de pressão sonora elevados.

Nesta pesquisa, foi possível encontrar uma diferença estatisticamente significante dos níveis mínimos de audição antes e após o concerto. Tais diferenças revelam que a configuração das perdas auditivas induzidas por música aparenta uma alteração primária nos limiares entre 3000 Hz e 6000 Hz. Assim, compreende-se que os músicos podem apresentar mudanças temporárias de limiar auditivos, isto é, a alteração do reflexo acústico e redução na capacidade das células auditivas captarem e decifrarem a energia sonora que as atinge. Esta situação, a longo prazo poderá tornar-se numa perda auditiva induzida por ruído (PAIR), podendo verificar-se lesões que afectem algumas ou mesmo todas as estruturas do aparelho auditivo.

Por estas razões, os músicos devem ser considerados profissionais de risco para perda auditiva ocupacional. Sendo a perda auditiva ocupacional irreversível, mas passível de prevenção, torna-se necessária a divulgação desta informação entre estes profissionais.

Embora este estudo tenha sido feito com um número restrito de músicos, focando apenas um determinado tipo de música, considera-se que foi um passo na compreensão desta temática. Apesar disso, é necessário realizar mais pesquisas com uma amostra maior e envolvendo outras modalidades musicais.

Texto reduzido e adaptado a partir de:

Pfeiffer, M.; Rocha, R.; Oliveira, S.; Frota, S. (2007) Intercorrência audiológica em músicas após um show de rock. Revista CEFAC vol.9 no.3 São Paulo

Imagem acedida em:

http://assets.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2010/11/GuitarRockConcertWeb*275.jpg?v=1

Surdez VS problema de audição

Quem tem um problema de audição não é surdo...

“Não é verdade que sou surdo. Eu oiço tudo. É que não compreendo bem as palavras”

Como não se fala de cegueira de um míope, também não se deve falar de surdez a uma pessoa que tem um problema auditivo. O órgão do ouvido é o mais complexo dos 5 sentidos e pode deteriorar-se por diversas razões.

A diminuição da acuidade auditiva (hipoacúsia) não é surdez, nem uma tragédia, tratando-se de um problema que embora não se possa solucionar, pode ser resolvido ou atenuado mais ou menos eficazmente.

Os problemas de audição afectam cerca de 1,8% da população mundial, calculando-se que em Portugal existem quase 500 000 pessoas com este tipo de afecção. Muitas destas pessoas, por preguiça ou pessimismo, vão adiando a decisão de enfrentar o seu problema, que se vai agravando com o passar do tempo. Portanto, ressalva-se, a primeira coisa a fazer é decidir realmente enfrentar o problema séria e serenamente, perspectivando alcançar uma melhor qualidade de vida.

Informação acedida e adaptada a partir de: “O guia Amplifon para a audição”, Lisboa: AMPLIFON

Imagem acedida em: http://www.aparelhosauditivosbrasil.com.br/imagens/perda-auditiva.jpg

Perda Auditiva Induzida por Ruído

A exposição por tempo prolongado a ruído, isto é, a níveis de pressão sonora elevados, pode levar ao aparecimento de PAIR.
A PAIR trata-se de uma alteração permanente dos limiares auditivos, e distingue-se das alterações auditivas temporárias e do traumatismo auditivo. Configura-se como uma perda auditiva do tipo neurossensorial, pelo facto de a alteração ocorrer ao nível da ouvido interno, por haver afecção do órgão de Corti e por refletir a morte lenta e gradual das células ciliares do órgão auditivo. Efectivamente, a maior característica da PAIR é a degeneração das células ciliadas do órgão de Corti, tendo sido, recentemente, demonstrado a ocorrência de lesões e de apoptose celular em decorrência da oxidação provocada pela presença de radicais livres formados pelo excesso de estimulação sonora.

É geralmente bilateral, pois é comum que ambos os ouvidos sejam igualmente expostos ao excesso de ruído. É de carácter progressivo e irreversível, o que quer dizer que agrava com o aumento do tempo de exposição ao ruído. Após a instalação da PAIR, a pessoa lesada não apresenta melhoria após o afastamento temporário e não existe tratamento eficaz, o que enfatiza a importância da prevenção.

A instalação da perda auditiva é lenta e progressiva, passando despercebida por muito tempo, o que faz com que o indivíduo só se dê conta do problema quando as lesões já estão avançadas. As dificuldades na percepção de sons e o zumbido são dos sintomas mais comummente relatados por portadores de PAIR. Pode, ainda, manifestar-se por alteração da selectividade de frequência, que provoca dificuldades em termos de discriminação auditiva.

Bibliografia:

• Bamford, J.; Saunders, E. (1991). Hearing impairment, auditory, perception and language disability. 2nd ed. San Diego: California: Singular Publishing Group.
• Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador do Estado do Rio de Janeiro e Centro de Estudos em Saúde do Trabalhador e Ecologia Humana / Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (2010). Fonoaudiologia na saúde do trabalhador. n1;
• Ministério da Saúde (2006). Perda Auditiva Induzida por Ruído (Pair). Brasília: Editora MS;
• Organização Mundial de Saúde (1993). Classificação de Transtornos Mentais e de Comportamento do CID-10. Descrições clínicas e directrizes diagnósticas. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas.
• Samelli, A. G. (2004). Zumbido: avaliação, diagnóstico e reabilitação: abordagens atuais. São Paulo: Lovise
• imagem acedida em http://www.warrington.gov.uk/images/noise2_tcm15-23652.gif