Protect your hearing.

Reports from the National Institute On Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) said that every year more than 10 million Americans suffer irreversible hearing damage from noise, and 30 million people are exposed to dangerous levels of noise each day. The Better Hearing Institute reported that about 28 million people in the United States have some degree of reduced hearing sensitivity, of which 80 percent is an irreversible hearing loss.

In fact, while work-related hearing loss is the most common occupational disease in the United States according to NIOSH, hearing loss also can result from Independence Day festivities, rifle shooting, as side effects of medication, or head injury trauma (such as from a fall off a bicycle).

A dangerous level of noise exposure can be just 90 decibels (the loudness of a lawn mower or motorcycle), if it's prolonged unprotected exposure. The result is often gradual hearing loss, according to the NIDCD.

While one-time exposure can permanently harm your ears, many such noise-induced hearing loss problems are the result of cumulative effects of repeated unprotected exposure to sounds at various loudness levels above 75 to 80 decibels. So while you may think you hear fine a few hours after attending a loud concert without protecting your hearing, in reality you've possibly just damaged your hearing. The damage to your ears occurs to sensitive hair cells of your inner ear and to the nerve of hearing.

Experts from the NIDCD suggest you learn which noises cause damage so you can protect yourself. Typically, a chain saw operates at 110 decibels. Even louder is a rock concert or firecrackers, which are 140 decibels. Wood shops are about 100 decibels.

"If you have to raise your voice and shout to be heard, you're in a damaging area," says audiologist Pamela Mason of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

The NIDCD and ASHA offer these helpful tips and suggestions:

* If you suspect a hearing loss, you might contact an otolaryngologist or an audiologist for a hearing evaluation. Go to www.nidcd.nih.gov/ health/pubs_hb/10ways.htm to answer 10 questions that might indicate hearing trouble, such as whether you have difficulty hearing over the telephone or if people complain about your high-television volume.

* Wear earplugs or special earmuffs when exposed to dangerous levels of noise. Get them at pharmacies, hardware stores, and sporting goods stores. The NIDCD says properly fitting earplugs or muffs reduce noise 15 to 30 decibels.

* If your children are too young to protect themselves, do it for them.

* Be aware that temporary or permanent hearing loss may result from approximately 200 drugs labeled as ototoxic, reports ASHA. Medications may be as common as aspirin used heavily by arthritis sufferers. "If you decrease the aspirin level, some of the effects will disappear," Mason says. Other ototoxic medications, she says, may be ones deemed life-saving such as some used in chemotherapy or antibiotics not casually given.

* Wear helmets when using bikes, skateboards, or Rollerblades, says Mason. If you fall and hit your head, you may fracture your temporal bone or puncture an eardrum, causing hearing loss.

* Realize you can pop your eardrum by misusing a Q-tip or other brand of cotton swab, Mason says.

* Don't buy your children or grandchildren a toy that sounds too loud. ASHA reports that a noisy toy held directly against the ear by a child can expose the ear to as much as 120 decibels of sound--that of a real jet airplane taking off.

Karen Fritscher-Porter is a writer living in Bloomingdale, Georgia.