As you strike up the band and hear bombs bursting in air, please
remember to protect your hearing, pleads the WISE EARS!
coalition, a national alliance of groups, government agencies,
and private organizations committed to protecting hearing. The
coalition is sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and
Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), and the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Ten
million Americans have already suffered irreversible damage from
noise, and thirty million are exposed to dangerous levels of
noise each day, prompting NIDCD Director James F. Battey, Jr.,
M.D., Ph.D., to emphasize, "It is alarming that Americans are
losing their hearing at a younger age. The greatest increase
occurs for people 45 to 64 years old. This is almost 20 years
younger than we would expect. Noise exposure appears to be the
culprit. The 4th of July is a perfect time to avert this
completely preventable hearing "While 4th of July celebrations
often mean a day away from work for many