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Readers Respond: Personal Experiences with Ocupational Hearing Loss

Responses: 1

From , former About.com Guide

Updated February 19, 2011

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Often, people lose their hearing because of their jobs. At work, they may have been exposed to loud noises or toxic substances that cost them at least some of their hearing. Did you lose your hearing because of your job? Share your experience here.

Learn more about causes of hearing loss

Hearing wrecked at 19

I wrecked my hearing at 19 when I was moonlighting as a sound/audio engineer for a sound contractor while in college. I was fine tuning the bass bins & subwoofers at the sister club to Studio 54. And Yes, I was wearing earplugs, but at the low frequencies & high spl's (up to 146 dB @21 Hz) they didn't work. Now, I am left with an unaidable reverse-slope (low-frequency) hearing loss & concomitant terrible speech discrimination. Oh, and really nasty tinnitus, too. I ought to know hearing aids couldn't help much: For many years I was a dispensing engineer. My last shot is a cochlear implant; and I'm in the process of joining Jamie and 180,000 other people around the world with one. Feh.
—DanSchwartz

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