Make Listening Safe
Our ears are more fragile than many of us realise and often young people don't know they are permanently damaging their hearing until it's too late. Sadly, once your hearing is gone it's gone for good.
The Make Listening Safe Programme is is a global initiative developed by the World Health Organisation to combat the rising levels of teenage hearing loss by educating young people about the risks of preventable hearing loss. Our world is noisier than ever before and recreational noise is everywhere.
Below you'll find helpful information on how to enjoy music and other recreational noise, but safely, and not at the cost of their hearing.
1 in 5 young people globally now have a disabling hearing loss.
This number is expected to double over the next 30 years if we do nothing.
Together, we can combat this devastating trend.
Top 8 Tips for Looking After Hearing for Life
Want to know more about your ears and how to stay within your weekly sound allowance?
Keep volumes as low as possible while listening to music - below the halfway mark
Ask a friend if they can hear your headphones music. If they can, turn the volume down.
Never use music to drown out other noises.
Use headphones instead of earbuds.
Give your ears a break from music for at least five minutes every hour.
Wear earplugs. They help to reduce noise levels, which makes for safer listening.
Pay attention to the warnings signs of hearing loss, such as ringing in the ears.
If it's uncomfortably loud or painful, leave.
Did you know that your ears have a weekly sound allowance?
What happens when you listen to music for too long and too loud?
It can help to think of the hair cells in your ears being like a fresh patch of grass and loud music being like a group of people trampling on the grass.
Before anyone walks on the grass, the blades stand up right and tall. But, as people continue to walk on the grass the blades become flattened. If people stop walking on the grass, after a few days, some blades of grass might pop back up and stand straight again.
But, if people continue to trample over the same patch of grass, the grass begins to die, and the damage becomes permanent.
How does your weekly sound allowance work?
Think of your weekly sound allowance like an empty glass.
You can fill it up with water slowly over the week with just a little water each day. Or you can fill it up all in one go.
Filling the glass up all in one go is like listening to music on max volume. This means you’ll use up all your weekly sound allowance very quickly.
That's why it's important to monitor how loudly and for how long you listen every week.