How To Protect Your Hearing in a Loud Work Environment

Protecting your hearing is very important as you get older but it’s particularly important for some people because they are at high risk for hearing loss. If you work in a loud environment everyday, like a factory or a concert space, you could be doing a lot of damage to your ears and it’s important that you take extra steps to protect it.

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These are some of the best ways to protect your hearing if you work in a loud environment. 

Wear The Right Ear Protection 

The easiest way to take care of your hearing is to wear adequate ear protection while you are at work. If you work in a loud environment, your employer should provide ear protection and if they don’t, it’s important that you speak to them about it and request the right protection equipment. Ear defenders are great but custom earplugs are one of the best ways to protect your ears. They are a lot more effective than standard earplugs because they fit your ears better and block out more noise. This allows you to wear them all day long without discomfort and you can also get custom earplugs with special filters for precise noise cancellation. 

Use Noise Cancelling Headphones 

A lot of people that work in loud environments wear headphones to listen to music. It’s a great way to block out the noise and it helps to keep you entertained if you work in a solitary job. However, a lot of people make the mistake of turning the volume up to full to drown out all of the background noise. But this is just replacing one loud noise with another and could potentially do more damage to your ears. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t listen to music in a loud environment, you should just wear noise cancelling headphones instead. They will effectively block out the background noise without the need to turn the volume up to max, so you can avoid damaging your ears. When you’re listening to music, you should try not to put the volume up past halfway and take regular breaks to give your ears a rest. 

Change Your Habits Outside Work 

Even though it’s important to take precautions while you are at work, you also need to change your habits outside work because you have a higher risk of ear damage. It’s important that you give up bad habits, like excessive drinking or smoking. If you have a habit of putting things in your ears, you should give that up as well. A lot of people think that using q-tips is good for their ears because they are cleaning them out but putting things down your ears actually does a lot of damage. If you think that you have a blockage in your ears, it’s best to see a specialist instead. 

Everybody needs to take steps to protect their hearing because, as you get older, your risk of hearing problems increases. But if you work in a loud environment, you need to take extra care and follow these steps to avoid hearing loss in later life.