World Hearing Day, March 3, 2020. This year’s theme is “Don’t Let Hearing Loss Limit You. Hearing for Life.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is again partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to help support and promote World Hearing Day.
This year, World Hearing Day aims to:

• Promote public health actions for ear and hearing care.
• Stimulate partnerships for ear and hearing care.
• Raise awareness on hearing loss and care at both national and community levels.
• Encourage behavior change.

World Hearing Day is the ideal opportunity to spread the word and raise the profile of ear and hearing care as part of a national health agenda.

One of the causes of hearing loss is recreational noise, and it is preventable. According to WHO, nearly 50% of people aged 12-35 years – or 1.1 billion young people – are at risk of hearing loss due to prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds. These sounds include music they hear through personal listening devices. Once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back.

Please help CDC and the WHO make listening safe by promoting these simple listening behaviors to reduce the risk of hearing loss and still enjoy your favorite activities:

1. Keep the volume down. Listening to loud music is unsafe.
2. Protect your ears from loud sounds. Use hearing protection devices such as earplugs or noise-cancelling earmuffs in noisy venues.
3. Limit the time spent engaged in noisy activities. And take breaks away from loud sounds.
4. Monitor listening levels (see additional resources below for helpful links to smartphone apps.)

Please help raise awareness for the need to

• Promote safe listening at entertainment venues.
• Ensure safe personal listening devices.
• Heed the warning signs of hearing loss, such as ringing or pain in the ear, and difficulty understanding certain words when in a loud place, such as a restaurant.
• Encourage regular hearing check-ups and to contact a physician with any concerns about your ears or your hearing.

Remember, noise-induced hearing loss can be permanent, but it is preventable.

Additional CDC and WHO Resources:
CDC’s Loud Noise Can Cause Hearing Loss Resource

CDC’s Sound Level Meter App

CDC Buy Quiet!

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WHO Toolkit for Safe Listening Devices and Systemspdf iconexternal icon