Airfield Noise and Your Ears
MEDICAL STUDIES show that approximately 20 million Americans (8%) are communicatively impaired (suffer from loss of hearing). It would stand to reason that the same 8% figure would apply to AMA members. Modelers don't deliberately want to make this statistic larger, but very subtly, we do! Our ears swim and survive daily in a sound- (noise-) infested environment. Noise is relative to the person enduring it. What is a noisy environment one person may not be a noisy environment to another. Many times it is a function of age, the environment in which we were raised, or physiological conditions of the human auditory system.
Airfield Noise and Your Ears Part II: More ways to be ear-responsible
IN PART I (May 1997 MA) we discussed damage to the human auditory process (hearing). The primary focus concerned engine noise damage to the peripheral (inner ear) auditory system resulting in sensorineural hearing loss (nerve damage). How can we prevent hearing damage? There are several options: We can 1) Do nothing and continue to wear down our hearing; 2) Quit the hobby and stay away from the airfields; 3) Wait for quieter engines; or 4) Trying hearing protection. ("The best method for this reduction is to prevent the noise generation source. When this is not possible, the next most desirable method is hearing protection." Handbook of Clinical Audiology, 4th Edition, Jack Katz, 1994, p. 548.)
