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Alan Tolcher

Working Bibliography

Bull, Greg. "Sound Advice on Hearing Conservation Programs." Professional Safety. 51.9
(September 2006): 20-3. Wilsonselectplus. 27 November 2007 I am going to use this
article to provide me with some insight on different things that can be done to protect
hearing in the work place.

DAMLO, SHERRI . "Quantum Sufficit: Just Enough." American Family Physician 7401
Dec. 2006 1823. Wilsonselectplus. 20 October 2007
http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu> This article has a little
selection about people that listen to their mp3 players loud and how you can hear
them from three to four feet away. They also talk about the ringing that people
experience in their ears and how to handle that sensation.

Daniel, Eileen. "Noise and Hearing Loss: A Review." The Journal of School Health. 7May
2007 225-31.Wilsonselectplus. 20 October 2007
<http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu> This article gives me a
decibel chart that I can use to compare different types of noise. It also gives me a
brief explanation of the science of the ear.

Haller, Anne Kathryn, and Judy K. Montgomery. "Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Children:
What Educators Need to Know.." Teaching Exceptional Children 36. 4.March/April
2004 22-27.Wilsonselectplus. 23 October 2007
http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu> This article is useful to me
because it talks about solutions to how we can prevent hearing damage. Some of
these are education or parenting suggestions.

Lu, Jinggiao and Xiaoru Cheng. "Evaluation of individual susceptibility to noise-induced

hearing loss in textile workers in China.." Archives of Environmental and
Occupational Health 60,6Nov/Dec 2005 287-94. 28 Nov 2007
<http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/WebZ/FSQUERY?format=BI:n
ext=html/records.html:bad=html/records.html:numrecs=10:sessionid=fsapp5-37280-
f9io1egz-ncqqqg:entitypagenum=2:0:searchtype=advanced>. I will use this to talk
about hearing damage in a work place.

McDonnough, Jacqueline T. and Juanita Jo. Matkins. "Using Sound Knowledge to Teach
About Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.." Science Scope 30. 8.Arpil/May 2007 42-7.
Wilsonselectplus. 24 October 2007
<http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu> This article give stats about
teens using ipods. They also give different scenerios of things that can cause hearing
damage and then compares them to the damage an ipod can create.
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Folmer, Robert L., and Susan E. Griest. "Hearing conservation education programs for
children: a review." The Journal of School Health. 72.2 (Feb. 2002): 51-7.Wilsonselectplus.
27 November 2007 This article talks about children that suffer from noise induced hearing
loss. It gives percentages and some interesting facts regarding kids with NIHL.

Goodin, Dan. "Apple sued over hearing loss in iPod buyers." Associated Press 01 Feb. 2006
29 October 2007 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/01/financial/f154219S22.DTL&tag=iLounge.
This is a news article that talks about a class action lawsuit against apple for the
damage iPods has caused to people’s ears. I am using this to show how much of a
crisis this issue really is.
“The Human Ear.” NDT Resource Center. http://www.ndt-
ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Sound/humanear.htm.

Dobie, Robert A.. Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss. 2. Clifton Park, NY: Thomas Learning, 2001.

"Noise rules fall on deaf ears." The Safety & Health Practitioner 24.12 (Dec
2006): 60(1). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Oakland University. 15 Nov.
2007
<http://find.galegroup.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA>.
To show that there are laws in the business world to as what is legal and safe for
workers, why shouldn’y there be for listeners?

Zymanczyk, Peter. "Another quiet day at the office: measuring worker exposure to noise, and
the damage it does, can be very difficult in some industries. Here, Peter Zymanczyk
looks at how studies into hearing loss among firefighters have revealed the sources of
the damage and how best to combat it." The Safety & Health Practitioner 24.11 (Nov
2006): 56(3). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Oakland University. 15 Nov.
2007
<http://find.galegroup.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/itx/start.do?prodId=HRCA>. This
article discusses the damage that can be inflicted by noise in the work place. This
particular example is of firefighters. They also have a few charts that show how
much noise a person can tolerate.

Links to pursue: http://kdka.com/video/?id=13447@kdka.dayport.com a news report on

iPods and the damage they cause.

Working Thesis:

Working Thesis: IPods and other personal listening devices are destructive to hearing and
people aren’t aware of how damaging it is.

Antithesis: Many things are damaging to hearing such as a lawnmower, or leaf blower. Some
way or another our hearing is going to be damaged

Synthesis: Although there are many things that contribute to hearing loss, personal listening
contribute to hearing loss.
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About three years ago I was looking for something that I could get for Christmas.

There were lots of thing that were possibilities for a great Christmas gift, but there was one

thing that I had to have. This was the iPod mini. Almost all of my friends had one and

anyone who was anyone to me seemed to have an iPod too. As you might have imagined, on

Christmas morning I opened up a box that contained my very own iPod mini. Little did I

know that someday this product that seemed like a gift straight from God may some day

damage another gift from God. This is the gift of hearing.

When a person is born they have little hairs in their ears called Corti. Each person

has about sixteen thousand of these hair cells. A lot of these hairs are already damaged when

you’re born (Daniel). What can increase the damage to these hairs are increases in high

decibel levels. Here are some examples of different decibel levels for different kinds of

activities. Zero decibel level is the softest level of volume. The sound of breathing is about

ten decibels which is barely audible. A normal conversation is around fifty to sixty decibels.

The decibel rate of city traffic is around eighty to ninety decibels, which is normally an

annoyance, not yet damaging to the ear. An mp3 player or an iPod has the decibel reading of

around 110 to 125. This decibel reading is damaging to the ear after fifteen minutes of play

time. This decibel reading is also in the same range as a rock concert (Daniel). The average

length of a song is around five minutes long. It would only take three songs for an ear to

become damaged by an mp3 player.

The human ear is composed of three different sections. There is the outer ear which

is composed of the ear flap, and the ear canal. Sound waves will enter the ear through the ear

canal. Then next part of the ear is the middle ear. There are three parts in the middle ear

called the ear drum, the anvil and the stirrup. When the sound goes through the ear canal it
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hits the ear drum which causes the ear drum to vibrate. The vibration from the ear drum is

then passed to the hammer, which is one of three tiny bones that are in the ear. When the

hammer receives the vibrations it too will vibrate causing the anvil, another small bone that

touches the hammer, to vibrate. After the vibration occurs at the hammer, the last of the

small bones called the stirrup. The stirrup picks up the vibrations and it touches a fluid filled

sack which causes the vibrations to travel into the inner ear. The inner ear consists of the

cochlea, the Eustachian Tube and the Auditory Nerve. The fluid filled sack, also known as

the Cochlea houses thousands of special hair cells called Corti. These hairs are attached to

nerve fibers that will transmit the vibrations to the brain. Once the brain receives the

information from these hair cells, it will then be able to pick up different sounds. This is how

a person hears(The Human Ear).

What I am focusing on in this process is the little hair cells called Corti. The organ of

Corti, as stated earlier, is housed in the cochlea. There are 16,000 to 20,000 of these little

hairs. These cells need to be stiff in able to be able to vibrate. Over time though, they begin

to lose their stiffness and lose their ability to vibrate. Once this happens to these cells the

damage is permanent. Hearing is slowly lost due to the softening of these hair cells(Robert
139).

This is how the hearing damage occurs, but it is hard to detect the early stages of

hearing loss. This is the problem with mp3 players and iPods. By the time a person can tell

there is a significant problem with their hearing the damage has already been done and is

irreversible (Daniel). So then what could be done to prevent something that is undetectable

until it is too late?

Things that can be done to help prevent hearing loss is having a mandatory constraint

on the personal listening devices in the market today. The iPod that is currently on the
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market has a decibel limit of 118. In France, the decibel level was forced to be dropped to

100 due to a law suit filed against Apple Inc. in France (Goodin). However, the limit in the

United States is still 118, which is still harmful to the ear. Something else that could be done

is to educate kids on the importance of taking care of their ears. Inform them on what can be

harmful and what a safe level of volume is.

What is strange about this issue is that it is not something that people haven’t heard

already. Everyone knows what listening to loud music does to hearing. Most people have

been informed about noise-induced hearing. The unfortunate thing about this crisis is that

consequences aren’t immediate like other consequences in our world are. In forty years from

now, we may see a generation with a large percentage of hearing impaired people. What will

be a challenge is making people care about something that isn’t going to be noticeable for

forty years.