E-Newsletter

New NHCA/CAOHC Webinar –

Professional Supervisor Panel

Discussion

Posted: January 12, 2022

NHCA is excited to partner again with CAOHC in 2022 offering high-level webinars on hot topics presented by top-notch speakers; plus added value CEUs! Our latest offering provides an in-depth discussion of the Professional Supervisor as a key member of the hearing conservation team. This presentation brings experienced Professional Supervisors from across the United States together to discuss the roles, responsibilities, scope of practice, and practice requirements across a variety of hearing conservation programs and regulatory agencies. NHCA members pay a reduced rate.

• When: January 20, 2022 at 2:00-3:00 pm EST
• Presenters: LTC J. Andrew Merkley, AuD CCC-A CPS/A and Theresa H. Small, AuD CPS/A
• To register: click here

2022 NHCA Conference – Still time

to register!

Posted: January 12, 2022

Don’t miss out on NHCA’s upcoming annual conference: a virtual three-day event packed with educational workshops, presentations, posters, virtual exhibits, and networking sessions - both live and on-demand! Following the conference, recorded educational sessions will be available for a limited time to all conference registrants. With the live and recorded sessions, you will have access to 15-20 CEUs from AAA and ASHA. You receive all of this value for about half the price of “traditional” in-person conference registration. Register by February 4, 2022 to avoid late fees.

• To view the 2022 AGENDA, click here.
• To REGISTER, click here.

AIHA Noise Manual, 6^th Ed. –

Limited time discount for NHCA

Posted: January 12, 2022

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is pleased to announce publication of its 6^th Edition of The Noise Manual. Many NHCA members participated in the project as editors, authors, and reviewers. To show appreciation, AIHA is offering NHCA members (who are not also AIHA members) a limited time discount of 20% off the non-member price for print and/or electronic copies of the book or individual chapters. Take advantage by ordering February 1-28, 2022 at the AIHA bookstore.

NHCA Scholarship Foundation

News

Posted: January 12, 2022

SAY IT ISN’T SO!!! Due to restrictive interstate gaming regulations, we regret that we will be unable to offer the 50/50 split or silent auction fundraisers during the upcoming 2022 NHCA virtual conference. We know how much all of you enjoy both activities, so we look forward to continuing these traditions at our next face-to-face conference in 2023. In the interim, we of course will gladly accept your monetary donations. Simply visit our website and click “Donate Now.” You may also designate the NHCA Scholarship Foundation as your favorite charitable organization on Amazon.com. Amazon Smile will donate to the Foundation 0.5% percent of your purchases at no cost to you.

DoD Funding Opportunity – Hearing

Protection Fit Testing System

Posted: January 12, 2022

The Department of Defense (DoD) Health Agency has released a Small Business Innovative Research announcement for "Scalable Multi-person Hearing Protection Device Fit-testing System." The objective is to develop a system that can simultaneously fit-test multiple people with their personal hearing protection devices (HPDs). The system should be usable in clinical and non-clinical settings to quickly test the fit of HPDs from various manufacturers. Grant applications are due February 10, 2022. For details, go to https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/ (Search for "Hearing Protection" or "Fit-testing" in the Filter By box)

Seeking E-News Editor

Posted: January 12, 2022

Do you enjoy keeping an ear out for professional news and being “in the know” with your Association? You could be the next E-News Editor! We’re looking for a volunteer to coordinate with the publication and website committees to curate our monthly electronic compilation of NHCA news, events, and developments in hearing loss prevention/sound appreciation. To learn more, please contact Elizabeth Masterson, Director of Communication, at [email protected].

Hearing Research - Current Insights

Posted: January 12, 2022

• Researchers at The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace, a NIOSH Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health^®, recently designed a hearing conservation intervention, HearWell, based on their new Healthy Workplace Participatory Program. HearWell uses worker participation in the form of design teams as part of a Total Worker Health approach to workplace safety and health. The goals of this intervention were to increase hearing protection device use and improve the so-called “hearing climate,” which includes supervisor and coworker support for using the devices. Results of a pilot program with transportation highway workers indicate that HearWell shows promising results for improving hearing protection use in the workplace.

Cavallari JM, Suleiman AO, Garza JL, Namazi S, Dugan AG, Henning RA, Punnett L. (2021). Evaluation of the HearWell Pilot Program: A Participatory Total Worker Health® Approach to Hearing Conservation. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 10;18(18):9529. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18189529.

• Researchers at four universities collaborated to review the relationship between noise exposure, selected health conditions, and well-being among nurses. They analyzed data obtained from surveys of over 3800 nurses regarding noise exposure, health conditions, stress, professional quality of life, and workplace support. They found that nurses who reported high noise exposure in the workplace also reported more health conditions, higher stress and burnout scores, and lower supportive environments. High noise exposure was significantly associated with lower professional quality of life.

• Speech-in-noise tests and suprathreshold auditory evoked potentials are considered potentially promising biomarkers for diagnosing cochlear synaptopathy in humans. Ghent University studied a small group of young adults to determine if these biomarkers changed after a discrete recreational noise exposure event, a 5-day music festival. They found individual variability in pre-festival test results, but did not observe significant changes related to noise exposure from the recreational event. Additional study is recommended.

• In an NIH-funded animal study (chinchillas), researchers attempted to determine effective preloading timepoints for D-methionine (D-met) for protection against steady state and impulse noise. Data were collected on ABR thresholds and cochlear and serum antioxidant measures. Results indicated that the optimal D-met preloading start time window is earlier for steady state (3.5–2.5 days) than impulse noise (3–2 days). For steady state and impulse noise exposure, significant threshold shift protection occurred at all test frequencies for these start times.

Campbell K, Cosenza N, Meech R, Buhnerkempe M, Qin J, Rybak L, et al. (2021) Preloaded D-methionine protects from steady state and impulse noise-induced hearing loss and induces long-term cochlear and endogenous antioxidant effects. PLoS ONE 16(12). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261049

Sound Postcard

Posted: January 12, 2022

Ever heard of the Music Modernization Act? Passed in 2018, this law changed copyright protection for recorded sound. As of January 1, audio recordings made prior to 1923 entered the public domain, similar to existing copyright expiration timeframes for film, literature, and photographs. This means that hundreds of thousands of early sound recordings have recently become available to interested historians, sound archivists and musicians. Check out events such as A Celebration of Sound – Public Domain Day on January 20, 2022 or the World According To Sound. Happy listening!

Graphic Source: creativecommons.org