Carnegie Hall Raises Awareness for Hearing Loss

NEW YORK, New York (Associated Press) Verena Dobnik How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Listen, listen, listen. That twist on the old cliche described an unusual happening Saturday in Manhattan: A mobile van parked by the famed hall offered free hearing tests to raise awareness of hearing loss among both young and old worldwide. ``The center of New York City happens to be one of the noisiest places on the planet,'' said Craig Kasper, a hearing expert. He added that among those at highest risk for hearing loss are ``Gen Xers and baby boomers with MP3 players in their ears.'' The van was sponsored by the Hear the World, a global initiative on hearing loss. Dozens of people who stopped by Saturday morning also received literature on how to prevent hearing loss. ``I'm 53, and I've never had my hearing tested as an adult,'' Rose Artis said after coming out of the van at the side of Carnegie Hall. She added: ``I feel better now,'' she added. ``My daughter's always saying, 'Can you hear me?' Now I can go home and tell her, 'They told me I have perfect hearing!''' Artis, who does cleaning work for city schools, said she also got a tip from the audiologist who tested her: ``I don't need to dig into my ears when I clean them with Q-Tips, making them all red.'' The Vienna Philharmonic, which was due to play a concert at Carnegie Hall on Saturday evening, helped launch Hear the World along with tenor Placido Domingo last fall. The initiative has provided the latest hearing-aid technology to those in need, especially in developing countries. The nonprofit Hear the World Foundation, based in Zurich, Switzerland, is sponsored by the Swiss company Phonak, a leading high-tech hearing device manufacturer. In the past months, Hear the World has delivered hearing aids to poor children in the Guatemalan jungle and tested youngsters in remote parts of the island of Fiji. An estimated 500 million people worldwide suffer from some form of hearing loss, including more than 31 million in the United States, said Kasper, an international expert in audiology. Because of the rising decibel level in daily life, today's youth have a rate of impaired hearing 2.5 times that of their elders, according to the foundation. ``It's not just a disorder of getting old,'' Kasper said, noting that 65 percent of hearing-impaired Americans are under 65. Factors contributing to hearing damage include genetics, various illnesses and viruses, plus ordinary noise-producing sources like leaf blowers, lawn mowers and subway trains. ``If it's loud enough and goes on for long enough, even things that might seem relatively benign _ like a hair dryer or a child's noisy toy _ could cause damage,'' said Kasper, who serves as an independent, unpaid expert for educational efforts including Hear the World. Kasper said that even a slight hearing loss may hurt a child's ability to learn in a classroom, or an adult's productivity at work, impacting income levels. These days, the solution to hearing loss comes from technology ``that is light years better than what we had two years ago,'' Kasper said. ``The stigma of hearing aids is fading, and we have everything from almost invisible hearing devices to sound-isolating earphones that are custom-molded to reduce outside noise.''