A Summary Of Earplugs In Concerts

Human hearing is a delicate thing, and the ears are always at risk from suffering hearing damage from high volume levels. Concerts are a major reason for damage to the ears, but only if a person attends without hearing protection. Simply putting in a set of earplugs can significantly reduce your chances of sustaining hearing loss at a concert. Damage prevention is so easy, yet 28 million Americans still suffer from deterioration of their hearing as they get older.1 Lack of public awareness is to blame for this problem, and the simplest way to fix it is to make changes to how venues hold their concerts. It is the responsibility of every venue that plays loud music for extended periods of time to protect, or at the very least attempt to protect, …show more content…
The biggest obstacle it faces is the cost it would take to supply each venue with earplugs to hand out for free, which can be solved by making the earplugs paid for by the venues themselves. The venues are already required to obtain an entertainment permit in order to hold shows available to the public, so a new amendment would be added to the current requirements on an entertainment permit. This additional amendment would be added to the requisites stating that the venue must provide earplugs for hearing protection to every patron upon entering the building, or else the venue’s entertainment permit will be revoked. The earplugs will have to be another cost factored into the venue’s expenses for each show. This way, the cost of the earplugs will lie on the venue itself and they will have to fit the cost into their own …show more content…
This lack of concern would certainly explain the massively high numbers of people with hearing loss in America. A study was conducted in 2005 to analyze these statistics. It found that 75% of rock concert attendees were aware of the risk on their ears in the building, but 80% said that they never wear hearing protection. It also found that almost 85% of the concert patrons experienced tinnitus as a result of the concerts. This shows that the availability of earplugs and other hearing protection is not where it should be. It also shows that the only way to get people to care about protecting their ears is to cut out all the middle steps and supply them directly with the protective products. This is why the earplugs should be handed out free of charge to every patron at the door. This way, everyone can protect their ears immediately without having to do any in-between work. The study agrees, stating that, “Previous use of hearing protection, a higher score on a scale of readiness for behavioral change and lack of concern about the appearance of ear plugs were statistically significantly associated with a reported willingness to use hearing protection in the future if it were provided for free”. The study’s conclusion lined up brilliantly