Listening to noises that are too loud will eventually result in hearing loss. Even noises which are only slightly above the maximum level will damage your hearing over a long period of time. For those who are working in a noisy environment, you need to be especially careful of how you treat your ears. Once you have lost your hearing you can't get it back, and its usually only once the damage has happened that you regret not looking after them more carefully. Defending your ears against hearing loss is quite simple, by the use of various hearing protectors that are on the market today.
The most common hearing protector today is a set of ear plugs. These are usually foam and are cheap and also disposable. They are one of the best ways to protect your hearing and they are probably the most comfortable. The issue with these though is that they are not rated for noises that are very loud. If you are working in a very loud factory then ear muffs are your only option. If you get the more expensive ones which are rated for jet planes then you won't have any problems working where it is very noisy.
Electric Hearing Protection is also beginning to become more and more popular. These work quite well, but are much more expensive and they also break easily. What ever your choice, just make sure that you are wearing hearing protection every second of the day that you are in a noisy environment. Even Audiometic testing just a minute a day will cause you to lose hearing, and you want to still have that when you are 60!
