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Strong Blasts Leave US Soldiers Deaf
Author : John Chambers
Submitted : 2010-10-23 02:49:42 Word Count : 965 Popularity: 12
Tags: hearing aids, Hearing test, hearing loss, hearing care, ear problem, hearing problem, tinnitus
Lately, the military has been compelled to intensify its efforts to guard the troops from noise as it has been a plaguing actuality that soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming back home in huge numbers with ringing in their ears or even permanent loss of hearing which is a sad fate.
Hearing damage is the number 1 disability in the war on terror, to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear.
Around the figures of 70,000 within the 1.3 million troops who have served in these war zones are now collecting disability for a strange condition that has a nature of a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears called tinnitus and on the other hand soldiers on disability for hearing loss reach up to 58,000 already. The numbers are staggering.
A startling explanation given is that the Pentagon never truly anticipated the fact that the rebels got to use very fearsome and powerful roadside bombs. Blasts of this kind would lead to violent changes in air pressure that would then break sensitive bones within the ear as well as rupture the eardrum.
Plus, most of the war schemes would include ambushes, firefights and bombings which are unexpected so the fighters do not have time to put on the hearing protection gear given by the military. They are not in the position to tell their enemies that they must first be allowed to put in their earplugs.
Moreover, many of these great servicemen on watch repudiate the use of such earplugs for fear of dulling their sense of hearing inevitably missing important sounds that truly matter in their duties and mission. Other men, on the other hand, did not receive any earplugs while the rest truly forgot to pack them before heading to the zone of war.
Raging war noises, for a former serviceman, persists in his mind and ears even after 4 long years since the simultaneous blasts created by three roadside bombs near Baghdad happened. For him, he recalls that it was quite funny how after the bomb went off, he did not at all feel that his leg is gone, but he remembers so clearly how intensely his ears rang.
This man states that his leg was blown off in the year 2003, leaving only his knee. This man shares that even as he has a prosthetic leg which is as good as new, the awful ringing in his ears are still there.
A good sixty percent of US personnel exposed to explosions are known to suffer from permanent hearing loss, and 49 percent of them would be n anguish caused by tinnitus, as stated by the audiology reports of the military.
The injury in the person's hearing could range from the milder degrees such as inability to be docile to low pitched sounds or faint whispers, up to harsher ones like a constant loud ringing that destroys the ability to concentrate or total deafness. When someone has tinnitus or hearing loss, he cannot look to one solution.
Since the Second World War down to the one in Vietnam, hearing damage has been a leading injury that has plagued many. Notwithstanding everything that has been learned over the long years, the Army men are still suffering hearing damage to the extent of what World War II vets are suffering from and this has been revealed by the VA.
But then World War II cannot easily be compared to the one that transpired in Iraq. Thanks to the vast artillery barrages, bombing raids and epic tank wars that were all seen throughout the time of World War II, it is evident that such war was waged to a humongous extent making it truly one of a kind.
As we face such fearsome weaponry being used today, it is a fact that even the best hearing protection tools are only effective partially and even after it is used the right way, too. A $7.40 pair of double sided earplugs, with one side designed to save from harm that weapon, fire and explosions can give while the other from aircraft and tank noise were issued to some members of the marines.
The Marines were not given education on how to properly utilize the earplugs, and some cut them in half, while the others would use the wrong sides, making the devices nigh on inadequate. But nowadays, instructions need to be handed out along with the earplugs.
Ear protectors that come in high tech earplugs have digital processors that block out damaging sound waves from gunshots and blasts without making people deaf from hearing everyday noises are now being bought and distributed by the Marines and the Navy for their people.
Those dispatched to Afghanistan and Iraq are protected with recently developed one sided earplugs that cost about eight dollars and fifty cents and it has begun testing it with some soldiers.
A pill is being developed by the Navy today along with this San Diego based company which aims to protect the hearing of the American troops. Back in 2003, an early study was conducted and this showed a 25 to 27 percent reduction in hearing loss that was permanent.
We now see that American warfare finally learned to put on the front lines the hearing trained medics and specialists instead of just at field hospitals and in the past three years this has become the first time trend.
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