International Noise Awareness Day 2025: Protect Your Hearing, Protect Your Health
April 30, 2025 – Innsbruck, Austria: Noise is invisible, but its impact is undeniable and far-reaching. From bustling city streets to the hum of machinery in workplaces, the constant presence of noise takes a heavy toll on our health – especially on our hearing. As we mark the 30th Annual International Noise Awareness Day, MED-EL, a global leader in hearing implant solutions, joins the worldwide initiative to raise awareness about the harmful effects of noise on hearing, health, and quality of life. This year’s theme, “Protect Your Hearing, Protect Your Health,” underscores the critical importance of noise prevention and safe listening practices.
- Over 1 billion young people worldwide are at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe exposure to noise in recreational settings.1 Consciously taking a break from noise allows the ears to recover from noise exposure.
- Noise-induced occupational hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses.2 Customized hearing protection used consistently may reduce or remove hazardous noise exposure.
- Preventive measures and regular hearing checks are crucial for early detection of hearing loss and maintaining long-term healthy hearing and quality of life.
Exposure to high levels of noise can lead to a range of health issues, including permanent hearing loss, tinnitus, cardiovascular problems, stress, anxiety, and sleep disturbances.3 The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 1.1 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss due to prolonged exposure to loud sounds, particularly through personal audio devices.
Deliberately taking breaks from listening in recreational settings is easy, but avoiding occupational noise is a different story. In fact, noise-induced occupational hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses worldwide.
Occupational Noise as a Global Health Issue
Occupational noise is a significant global health issue, causing hearing loss in millions of workers around various industries and making noise-induced hearing loss one of the most common occupational diseases worldwide.4 Reducing workplace noise levels, introducing quieter machinery, and providing personal hearing protection are effective strategies to reduce occupational, noise-induced hearing loss.
Personal Story: Heinz from Austria
Machinist Heinz from Austria experienced first-hand how hearing loss can reduce quality of life. At 61, he looks back to decades of excessively loud volumes at his workplace, often without hearing protection. After many years of progressively losing his hearing and three incidences of sudden hearing loss, Heinz’s hearing was too poor to benefit from hearing aids. “In the 1980s, hearing protection was not considered that important. Later on, the damage could not be undone”, Heinz regretfully recalls. He now hears with a cochlear implant and is back to his former communicative self.
Safe Listening Made Easy!
To help reduce the risk of hearing loss, MED-EL shares the following daily listening tips based on WHO recommendations, which can easily be integrated into daily life.
At work:
- Protect your hearing: Use customized personal hearing protection.
- Educate yourself: Get trained about the proper use of hearing protection devices.
- Be aware: Regularly get your hearing checked.
In recreational settings:
- Limit Exposure: Adults should listen to devices at safe noise levels of up to 80 dBA for no more than 40 hours per week, while children should not exceed 75 dBA for the same duration.
- Use Noise-Cancelling Headphones: Well-fitted noise-cancelling headphones can help protect your ears from loud sounds in noisy environments.
- Wear Earplugs: Use earplugs to protect your ears from loud sounds at clubs, concerts, and other entertainment venues.
- Give Your Ears a Rest: Take listening breaks regularly to help your ears recover from loud sounds around you.
Protect Your Hearing, Protect Your Health and take action to safeguard your hearing for a healthier future. If you notice your hearing deteriorate or experience a ringing sound (tinnitus) after exposure to loud noise, do not hesitate to get your hearing checked by an ENT specialist. For an initial assessment of your hearing abilities, take the free online hearing test on the MED-EL website.
1 World Health Organization
2 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
3 https://noiseawareness.org
4 World Health Organization
About MED-EL
MED-EL Medical Electronics, a leader in implantable hearing solutions, is driven by a mission to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication and quality of life. The Austrian-based, privately owned business was co-founded by industry pioneers Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, whose ground-breaking research led to the development of the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant (CI), which was successfully implanted in 1977 and was the basis for what is known as the modern CI today. This laid the foundation for the successful growth of the company in 1990, when they hired their first employees. To date, MED-EL has more than 2,900 employees from around 90 nations and 30 locations worldwide.
The company offers the widest range of implantable and non-implantable solutions to treat all types of hearing loss, enabling people in 137 countries enjoy the gift of hearing with the help of a MED-EL device. MED-EL’s hearing solutions include cochlear and middle ear implant systems, a combined electric acoustic stimulation hearing implant system, auditory brainstem implants as well as surgical and non-surgical bone conduction devices. www.medel.com
CEO
Doz. DI Dr DDr med. h.c. Ingeborg Hochmair
Press Contact
PR & Corporate Communications
MED-EL Medical Electronics
Fürstenweg 77a
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
T: +43 5 7788
E: [email protected]
