Dear Sally : When it comes to this subject, your relationship with your husband mirrors mine with my wife, Kathy. And I am also a victim of occupational hearing loss and have gone through extensive testing to see if I can eliminate the distracting tinnitus that has now set in.

I am by no means a hearing expert, but I have learned much because of my own situation. If your husband won't listen to you, he may read what I have to say. Each time you subject your ears to loud noises without protection, you wear out your inner ear parts and create long-term damage to your hearing.

Motors, fans, engines and many construction tools create powerful low-frequency noise that can contribute to hearing loss, especially if you are subjected to them on a regular basis.

The inexpensive ear protection your husband uses is probably a set of passive earmuffs. Some workers use different types of foam earplugs. All of these devices work by trying to block the air pathway between the source of the noise and the eardrum. These are not bad at blocking mid- and high-frequency noise, but passive ear protection typically does not fare well when asked to block low-frequency noise.

I suggest you purchase a quality set of active noise-cancellation earmuffs for your husband. These wonderful devices employ an internal microphone and computer microchips inside the earmuffs. Powered by a single AA battery, the sophisticated earmuffs listen to the incoming noise and, using the electronic circuitry, immediately produce a noise wave that matches the incoming sound. This new anti-noise wave actually cancels out the majority of the incoming noise.

The claims made by some of the noise-cancellation earmuff manufactures seem unbelievable, but I am here to tell you they are not. I have used these electronic noise-cancellation earmuffs and am constantly amazed at how they block all types of noise. The earmuffs are also made to block a great amount of continuous mid- and high-frequency noise.

But it gets better. When wearing the electronic noise-cancellation earmuffs, you can clearly hear when someone talks to you. This is a huge benefit if someone is telling you that danger is near.

Low-frequency noise in a workplace can also be dangerous for reasons beyond hearing problems. This noise is very effective at canceling the higher frequency noise produced by humans as they talk or yell.

Commands given to warn a worker of a danger might not be heard because the sound waves are masked by low-frequency sound waves entering the person's ears at the same time. Confusion is common when a person hears something but misunderstands what has been said. This can lead to errors, injuries or death.

Finally, you can also connect your mp3 player or iPod to certain noise-cancellation earmuffs. A simple input jack allows you to safely listen to music while you work and block out all of the harmful sound waves.

By Tim Carter
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