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Corporate Cause: Hearing Conservation

Imagine for a second that you can no longer hear what’s going on around you.

Most people take hearing health for granted, but more than 28 million Americans

suffer from some degree of hearing loss.  What’s worse is that this number is expected

to rise to 78 million by 2030 if we don’t start taking precautions.

Several years ago, Shure adopted hearing conservation as its corporate cause.  Shure introduced the Shure Bid For Hearing program to raise money for hearing conservation organizations and increase awareness about healthy listening among musicians and members of the pro audio community.  This program was reintroduced with the same mission at the 2006 Winter NAMM Show as Listen Safe, which encourages people to take hearing health seriously.  The program promotes hearing conservation by providing free hearing screenings and earplugs to attendees at industry trade shows, music conferences and festivals -- and to Shure's own employees.

It’s not difficult to be exposed to dangerous sound levels, classified as 85 decibels and above.  A lawn mower is roughly 85 decibels and a rock concert can get all the way up to 140 decibels!  Experts advise to not only be aware of the decibel level, but also how long you’re exposed.  The higher the level, the less time you should be around it.

Have you ever gone to a concert and found that your ears were stuffy, or even kept ringing (called “tinnitus”) for the next day or two?  Your ears can tolerate those nights every so often, but making a habit of it might cause permanent damage.  Because Shure is in the business of sound, we understand the importance of good hearing health.