FACTS
- Exposure to noise can increase stress, anxiety, loss of sleep, and fatigue.
- Noise can also cause elevated blood pressure, heart disease, and increased heart rate.
- Excessive noise during pregnancy may damage the newborn’s hearing.
- Noisy homes and environments can interfere with learning and language development in children. Even a mild hearing loss can harm a child’s ability to speak, learn, and interact with others.
- Untreated hearing loss, especially in older adults, can lead to
- social isolation
- depression
- dementia
- falls (leading to injury)
- inability to work or travel
- reduced physical activity.
STATS
- Each year, about 22 million external U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work. Over 30 million external U.S. workers are exposed to chemicals, some of which are harmful to the ear (ototoxic) and hazardous to hearing.
- Workers in 75.0 percent of civilian jobs were exposed to moderate noise levels at work. Another 13.3 percent were exposed to loud noise levels and 0.7 percent to very loud levels. Workers in construction and extraction occupations were mostly exposed to loud work (49.6 percent of jobs) or very loud work (7.9 percent). More than 7 in 10 carpenters and operating engineers and other construction equipment operators were exposed to loud work environments.
- In food preparation and serving related occupations, 16.5 percent of jobs were exposed to loud work environments, and 82.1 percent were exposed to moderate noise during a typical work day. Bartending jobs were about evenly split between workers exposed to a loud work environment (44.7 percent) or a moderate noise environment (46.7 percent).
- The two most common causes of hearing loss are noise-induced hearing loss and age-related hearing loss.
- Noise-induced hearing loss is the number one occupational disease in North America.
- Noise above 90 decibels (dBs) can cause hearing loss, especially when the exposure lasts for an extended period of time.