hearing-loss-theinfo.com

This is a strange story of the solar powered hearing aids which are from the plumber.

Howard Weinstein wasn’t actually a plumber but he worked for his father’s plumbing company and then owned a plumbing equipment company himself.
But life was destined to be different for Howard and he somehow ( as a volunteer position with the World University Service of Canada ) ended up in Botswana.

He worked at Camp Hill Community Trust which was community for disabled people and it was there that he started Godisa Technologies which produced a solar energy powered hearing aid, the analogue solar charger, and the rechargeable battery. The non-profit company still today produces those products and more. Many of the staff at Godisa are deaf and therefore have a great understanding of hearing loss.

Solar-Powered Hearing Aids may be the answer in poorer countries for many people with hearing loss

A five-year study is being started to investigate the hearing loss which is experienced by people who have contracted HIV/AIDS.
The study will be conducted by Amneris Luque, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and director of Strong Memorial Hospital’s AIDS Clinic working with Robert Frisina, Ph.D., professor of Otolaryngology, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurobiology and Anatomy.
This will be an extensive study comparing patients with and without HIV.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders is funding the project with a $1.9 million grant to investigate this particular disease group and hearing loss.

American Academy of Otolaryngology annual meeting also heard from
Dr. Douglas Mattox, professor of otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine.

He said “Noise-induced hearing loss is the number one preventable kind of hearing loss, we’re all born with 20,000 inner hair cells on each side of the head, and those are a non-renewable resource, and they never come back every time one is lost.”
“You’re losing cells a few at a time, and you get to a point where there are few cells doing the work of what many cells were doing before,” he said.

Other information presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology conference included suggestions that men have a higher incidence of hearing loss because they will be involved in activities which are more noisy than those which women choose.
Men are more likely to be involved in work which has high noise levels such as military service, factory work or occupations involving power tools and mechanical equipment. They also have hobbies and sports which involve high noise levels such as hunting and motor sports.
Dr. Hamid Djalilian from Irvine, Medical Center University of California was reporting on a study he was involved in which involved over 5,000 people between the ages of 20 and 69 showed that males were three times as likely to have noise-related hearing loss as women.

At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology held in San Diego, California one of the presenters was Dr. Philip Michael, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in England.
He and his team measured the volume of noise while driving seven different convertible cars of varying price levels. Whilst limited in the size of the sample the average noise level was 87 to 89 decibels and there was a general trend of higher noise exposure with increased speeds. (recommended maximum is 85 decibels )
People driving convertibles may experience a buzzing noise in their ears after driving for several hours but as Dr. Michael said “The likelihood is that, for short trips, you’re not really going to do much, but if you’re spending the whole summer driving around with your top down on a highway, then doing that on a regular basis increases your chances.”
Dr. Michael actually drives a convertible himself and his personal advice is that drivers, by simply putting the windows up, can reduce the risk of hearing loss .

A recent study shows that men driving convertibles have a higher risk for hearing loss .

See next post !