Protect the Future of Hearing — Spread the Word About World Hearing Day!

Every year on March 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsors World Hearing Dayexternal icon, a time to raise awareness about preventing hearing loss and promoting hearing care worldwide. This year’s theme, “Hear the Future,” focuses on strategies to prevent the expected increase in the number of people living with hearing loss.

At CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, we believe this is the perfect opportunity to highlight our shared responsibility to educate young people about noise-induced hearing loss in order to help prevent it. We know that young people may not be aware of the risk of spending too much time around loud noises — so this World Hearing Day, we ask that you join us in our efforts to spread the word.

To make it convenient for you to promote World Hearing Day and help protect the hearing of young people, we’ve put together some talking points and materials for your use. We hope you’ll find them helpful and that you’ll join us in our goal to prevent noise-induced hearing loss in young people on March 3 — and beyond.

Share the facts

You can use these talking points to communicate with young people about noise-related hearing loss.

• 48 million people in the United States have trouble hearing with one (or both) of their ears
• Over time, being around too much loud noise can make you lose your hearing
• Once you’ve lost your hearing, you can’t get it back

Keep in mind that young people may not understand the level of noise that can damage their hearing. Communicate facts like:

• 5 in 10 young people listen to their music or other audio too loudly
• 4 in 10 young people are around dangerously loud noises during events like concerts and sports games

And remember to share the steps young people can take to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, including:

• Try to avoid loud noises
• Use hearing protection (like earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones) when you must be around loud noises

Learn more about noise-induced hearing loss.

You can share our content and graphics on social media

This toolkit includes sample content for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram — so you can spread the word across all of your social media accounts.

You can add our content to your website, blog, or newsletter

We’ve also included content you can easily add to your website, blog, or newsletter, with key information about World Hearing Day and related resources.

Together, we can help prevent hearing loss!