Tinnitus and Noise Pollution — Any Difference?

Someone recently approached me with a question;

People who are exposed to noise pollution from the surrounding environment are usually treated with great respect and empathy. Authorities and legislative assemblies usually take these matters seriously. Recommending these people CBT, "positive thinking" or sound therapy to deal with the noise seems completely absurd. Why then should tinnitus be treated any less seriously than noise pollution, especially since the noise usually has no end?
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And this really got me thinking. What's the difference really? I get that noise pollution is fixable, unlike tinnitus (currently). But why is the issue generally met with more understanding and compassion? Why doesn't legislative assemblies work harder to prevent tinnitus, by enforcing more strict sound level limits?

Just some food for thought.
~Stacken

 

You make a very good point @Stacken77 and I agree with you. Perhaps tinnitus isn't taken so seriously by the powers at be, because it is a very common condition. A lot of people that have tinnitus are able to live a fulfilling life doing everything that they want to without it being too much of a problem.

Like many health conditions tinnitus does vary. It can be mild, moderate or severe. When it is severe it can impact on a person's quality of life and if hyperacusis is present more so. However, these people are still a small minority compared to the vast amount that are able to cope with it, either with self-help or being under the care of a medical professional.

It's just the way I see it.

All the best,
Michael

 

To Stacken:

The good news is that, contrary to Michael Leigh's commentary, there is finally a growing awareness of the dire seriousness of exposure to dangerous levels of noise.

His comment that severe, debilitated sufferers constitute only a very small (and therefore, comparatively speaking, ultimately insignificant) minority is patently absurd (see below remarks).

Noise pollution is not actually "fixable"; 11 million Americans in their jobs are exposed to dangerous levels of noise, and Industry cannot be reengineered such that this is allievated (there cannot be, for example, a quiet Jet Engine or a Steel Blast Furnace).

What is remediable is the growing awareness that the requirement to wear adequate sound blockers is becoming as standardized as the requirement for wearing a hard hat in a Construction Zone (our Town's Firemen while driving are, for example, now always seen wearing the sorts of sound blocking headphones that are required for the Gun Range).

We can thank the American Safety Engineer's Association for launching a campaign to make Industry aware that exposure to dangerous levels of sound is as objectionable as being exposed to toxic chemicals.

Last week, when I visited my Audiologist, they had a Campaign Poster that said "You regularly have your eyes checked; why not your hearing?"

In an earlier post I mentioned that Dr. Shore was invited a few years ago to testify before a Senate Subcommittee Hearing about the necessity for vastly increasing the funding for tinnitus research. This was due to Congress's recognition that over 800,000 Veterans (whose numbers are growing) have this to the extent that places them on Disability, with payments now exceeding over $2 billion annually. The galling realization is that these kinds of expense numbers were what was necessary to pique the awareness of the Political Elite such that they considered allocating much more cost-effective funding for a tinnitus cure.

The tragedy of Kent Taylor apparently reached a National Audience (especially since it was reported in detail by the Wall Street Journal). I conducted an informal poll around town, and it was astonishing the number of people (who had never heard of tinnitus) but who were now acquainted with this condition because of such reportage.
Perhaps the very unfortunate circumstance is that it took a CEO worth $400 million to elicit such thorough coverage by the National Media. (This reminds me of how, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, President Reagan was criticized about not recognizing it's dire state until it afflicted his close personal friend from Hollywood, namely Rock Hudson).

My ENT Doctor said that seriously bothersome tinnitus is emerging in epidemic proportions for the retiring Baby Boom Generation (their clinic gets at least one such patient for every day of the year they are open). They constitute a very formidable economic and political voting bloc, and they can exert the sort of leverage to spur much more funding for research.

These are all hopeful signs that the tide of awareness may finally be turning. It reminds me of the maddeningly obtuse attitude the Medical Community once took regarding Migraines ("It's only a headache") or Acne (being oblivious to the psychological damage wrought on Adolescents).

Perhaps tinnitus is the last sorely under-regarded condition whose reevaluation will undergo a similarly enlightened approach.