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6226 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 11, 1974 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS DEAFNESS AND BLINDNESS, AND loss of sexual prowess or stupidity. Whatever ever-increasing noise pollution is the chief PROGRAMS TO LESSEN THEIR IM­ the reason, the tendency to do nothing­ culprit. "Noise is the single greatest cause by sufferers as well as doctors-amounts to of hearing loss, and it's of epidemic propor­ PACT ARE STRESSED IN THE an unconscious conspiracy. When you had tions," says James McMahon, administrator LIONS INTERNATIONAL MAGA­ your last checkup, did your doctor examine of the prestigious New York League for the ZINE your hearing? Probably not. I've just had Hard of Hearing. an annual physical by an internist connected Government action has already accom­ with one of our top hospitals, and although plished some curtailment. Three years ago, HON. JENNINGS RANDOLPH he checked my eyesight, he did nothing to for example, Congress passed a law limiting OF WEST VmGINIA test my hearing. Only because I persisted the number of hours workers may be ex­ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES did I have my hearing checked. Sure enough, posed to high levels of occupational noise­ I found myself among the unlucky "one out for example, eight hours at 90 decibels and Monday, March 11, 1974 of 10." two hours at 95 decibels. Increasingly, cities Mr. RANDOLPH. Mr. President, the What does a gradual hearing loss mean? are adopting anti-horn ordinances. In New Dr. William G. Hardy, Director of Johns York, Dr. Thomas H. Fay, one of the city's March 1974 issue of the Lion, the Hopkins' Hearing and Speech Center, says, noise consultants who also heads the speech monthly publication of Lions Interna­ "You tum up the radio and TV louder. You and hearing clinic at Columbia-Presbyterian tional contains two excellent articles can ask people to speak up. You accuse Medical Center, has suggested to officials concerning two handicaping conditions­ friends of mumbling. You find it more and that they get rid of the old walling sirens deafness and blindness. more difficult to get the dialogue in movies entirely ("they were highly damaging to The first, "America's Unadmitted Epi­ and the theatre. At parties, where there's ears") and is working with the city to change demic," points out that more than 14 cross conversation, you have to concentrate over to the European type hi-lo sirens on harder and harder to hear what people are its emergency vehicles-fire engines, police million Americans suffer degrees of deaf­ saying, and you end up exhausted. Eventu­ cars and am":>ulances. ness-about 1 out of 10-that the prob­ ally, you start to withdraw from social con­ Despite these few heartening measures, lem is growing, and that many people tacts, become more irritable and moody, and however, most communities have a long way with hearing loss refuse to take correc­ make life difficult for those around you. You to go before they're hearing-safe. A passing tive measures. It also emphasizes the im­ miss much of the fun of living." motorcycle can still attack our ears with a portance of early, correct diagnosis so Although it's difficult to put a figure on 90-decibel roar, a diesel truck with 100, and that a deaf child will not be erroneously the amount of money lost each year through a subway car as much a.s 16. A rock and roll labeled autistic or retarded. Finally, it defective hearing, the staff of the Hearing band can assail us with 120 decibels, and a Aid Industries Conference estimates it to cheering crowd in an enclosed arena with urges the average person to protect his be at least one billlon dollars. One woman 115. Even at home, we don't do much of a hearing insofar as possible and gives was able to put a precise figure on what job protecting ourselves. A noisy power practical suggestions to follow. her hearing loss has cost her: $10,000. She mower's 105 decibels is way above the level The second article, "A Week of Sum­ was showing a prospective buyer through at which industrial compensation would be­ mer Fun," tells of New Jersey Lions sup­ her house one day when he mentioned a gin in a factory. Even an electric shaver is port at the Helen V. Diller Vacation price he would be willing to pay. "I won't 85 decibels next to the ear. Home for Blind Children. This program take a penny less than $35,000," she said. "As consumers, we must demand quieter has provided supervised outdoor activi­ The man quickly agreed. Only later did she appliances," says Fay. learn he'd offered $45,000, but she'd heard Ironically, although conditions have never ties for blind children for the past 2 the figure incorrectly. The experience made been worse to induce ear damage in our pres­ years-activities such as basketball, fish­ her go out and buy a hearing ald. ent-day society, they've also never been better ing, and bike riding, which most of us Despite medical and mechanical advances to do something about it. If you have to have take for granted. in the field, there are indications that the a hearing problem, this the best time in all Mr. President, I ask unanimous con­ hearing problem is getting worse rather history to have it. For, it's only in the last sent that the two articles be printed in than better. For example: decade or two that medicine, surgery and the RECORD. -The number of the deaf among the electronic technology have reached a point There being no objection, the articles elderly is growing. This is because loss of where we can now say, "There is almost no hearing is always more prevalent among one who can't be helped." were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, the aged (nearly half of the 13.4 million In the 1920's, thanks to Lee de Forest's as follows: needing attention are over 65) and because vacuum tube, table model aids were avail­ [From the Lion magazine, March 1974] people are living longer. able, but they were expensive and not very AMERICA•s UNADMITTED EPIDEMIC -As we become more and more indus­ portable. Things got better in the 30's and (By Roul Tunley) trialized, more workers develop more hear­ 40's, when tubes, circuits and batteries be­ ing problems in middle age, their ears pre­ came smaller, but wearers were still wired More than 14 mllllon Americans suffer de­ maturely aged I'Jy occupational noise. A re­ like telephone poles. It wasn't until the in­ grees of deafness. The problem is growing cent Industrial Noise Conference in New vention of the transistor in 1953 that tech­ and many people with hearing loss even re­ York reported one out of four job applicants nology found the miracle it needed. This, fuse to take corrective measures. in industry has a hearing handicap. plus the miniaturization made possible by It's silent. It's subtle. It's painless. It's in­ -Among the young, rising deafness sta­ space technology, enabled manufacturers to visible. It's America's biggest and least ad­ tistics pose the most serious threat of all produce smaller, tougher and more sensitive mitted ailment-loss of hearing. More people because hearing is crucial to language and instruments. Today, the entire hearing aid suffer from it than from heart disease, can­ learning. This is especially true among the system-microphone, amplifier, battery, re­ cer, blindness, tuberculosis, venereal disease, very young. Studies of elementary school ceiver and controls--can be contained in a multiple sclerosis, and kidney disease put to­ children have shown as many as 25 percent package no bigger than a small button and gether. At least one out of 10 Americans 1s of them with a "meaningful" (but reversi­ weighing no more than an ounce. It can fit affected, according to the National Institutes ble) hearing loss. And among high school in or behind the ear, in one's pocket, or in of Health. youngsters, especially those of rock music one's eyeglasses. Despite its size, however, we do less about age, the situation may be worse. In 1968, At the same time these strides were being this afiliction than any other. Less than one researchers at the University of Tennessee made in mechanics, equal progress was being per cent of the money spent on medical re­ gave a standard hearing test to incoming made in medicine. To understand them, one search goes for deafness. Even the legally freshmen. High frequency impairment must realize that there are two kinds of deaf get no income tax exemption like the caused 33 percent of the students to fall it. hearing loss. One is conductive, and lies in blind, although those who have experienced A year later, another group of incoming the outer or middle ear. It can be caused by both (like Helen Keller) find loss of hearing freshmen were given the same test. This wax, by an infection, by a punctured ear­ far more serious. Says Dr. Robert Ruben, time 61 percent failed it. drum, or the inability of the tiny bones in the chairman of the otolaryngology department The Deafness Research Foundation re­ middle ear to move properly. All can be at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine ports there are many reasons for these treated medically or surgically today. The and a researcher in the field, "We're hid­ worsening statistics. Increased longevity, re­ other loss is sensori-neural, or nerve loss, and eously backward in our approach to deaf­ cent rubella (German measles) epidemics, it's in the inner ear.

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