A new video has been launched to coincide with the start of Hearing Awareness Week 2017 to raise awareness of tinnitus among musicians and the music industry, and to offer advice for how to tackle it.
Anyone can experience tinnitus, but research has shown that musicians are four times more likely to experience the hearing condition. Tinnitus risk is also higher for those working in the music industry, as well as gig-goers who are regularly exposed to loud sound.
Typically, people with tinnitus report hearing buzzing or ringing sounds, even though the sound isn’t actually present in the world around them.
This may not sound so severe, but over time can have a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of those who experience it. In addition, tinnitus can be an important early indicator of more serious hearing damage.
Internationally-acclaimed Australian House producer Dom Dolla has had his own recent personal encounter with tinnitus and hearing loss. “In January this year, I learnt a hard lesson when I was diagnosed with noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. That temporary deafness and loud ringing you hear when you wake up after a night out? For me it’s now permanent,” Dom explained.
He continued, “tinnitus is no rarity, particularly amongst people like me who work with sound, and I’m by no means the first in my industry to suffer from it. In the early days, I had to cancel some shows to give my ears a rest but I’m now back to it with good plugs and better management strategies.”
Led by HEARsmart, a team from Australian Hearing, the National Acoustic Laboratories, The University of Melbourne’s Audiology and Speech Pathology Clinic and Musicians 4 Hearing co-created the video targeted at musicians with simple messages about what tinnitus is, ways to reduce the risk of developing it, and strategies for managing the symptoms.
Research carried out by the HEARsmart team has shown that tinnitus is becoming more common in young audience groups. Loud music, loud headphones, loud gym classes, loud anything – it’s all the same to your ears – and all of these activities can add up to increase the risk of tinnitus.
Patrick Donovan, CEO of Music Victoria – the peak Victorian body for contemporary music, said: “Music Victoria takes hearing health very seriously and we are thrilled to partner with HEARsmart in promoting this important educational video.
“Music Victoria has done a lot of work with governments to enable venues to play live music within legal levels and not get shut down by complaining neighbours, but venue owners also have a responsibility to ensure that everyone in their venue – from musicians to staff and punters – have a positive experience and don’t receive permanent hearing damage from live music,’’ Patrick explained.
The team who created the video is quick to point out it’s not about telling people to give up on things they love that happen to be loud. Rather, they hope that by encouraging people to be more aware of how LOUD, how LONG and how OFTEN they are listening, they will encourage people to protect against the damage that leads to tinnitus, and potentially hearing loss later in life.
HEARsmart is an initiative founded by the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre to look out for the hearing health of young people, and promote healthy listening behaviours to prevent noise-induced tinnitus and hearing loss. To find out more about HEARsmart go to: hearsmart.org