Some people have an overly pastoral image of farming, but for those who farm for a living, you know it can be messy and loud. Very loud. As audiologists in the Treasure Valley area, an area with a large number of farms and farmers, we want to investigate the farming industry and how our farmers’ hearing health might be affected.
Sources of Loud Noise
Here are just some of the noise hazards on a farm that could impact hearing and how loud they can get. Bear in mind that hearing damage can occur starting at just 85 decibels.
- Tractors and combines (with enclosed cabs), 92 dB
- Air compressor, 95 dB
- Pigs squealing, 100 dB
- Riding mower; skid steer, 102 dB
- Tractors without cabs; grain dryers, 105 dB
- Chainsaws, 115 dB
Also consider that older or broken equipment can be even louder. Additionally, dropped equipment and loud bangs are common, and such impulse noises can exceed 120 dB. That noise level can cause instantaneous hearing damage.
Long Days and Cumulative Effects
Farming doesn’t involve clocking in at 9 and clocking out at 5; farm work is an all-day affair. Moving continuously from loud task to loud task—from tractor work to livestock care to tool use—from sunup to sundown is going to have a compounding effect on your hearing.
Enclosed Spaces
A lot of farm work happens out in the field—wide open space where sound can dissipate into the air. But a good amount of it also happens in enclosed spaces, such as the barn, shop or machine shed. In enclosed spaces like this, sound waves bounce back at you rather than flying away. This makes the din even louder and keeps exposure going for longer.
The Work of a Lifetime
Another way loud noise on the farm has a cumulative effect on hearing health is how much of a farmer’s life is spent working on the farm. Many farms around here are multigenerational, meaning decades upon decades of loud noise exposure, starting when you first started helping out on the family farm. While this lends to a feeling of pride and connectedness to your land and family, it does mean that your hearing may have started to show signs of damage going back to adolescence.
How To Protect Your Hearing
Farming is a necessary and noble profession, and we love our Treasure Valley farmers. We aren’t at all advocating that you change your career. However, we do want you to take good care of your hearing health. Some ways you can do this are:
- Wear hearing protection. Earplugs can help, but we encourage you to seek out specialty earmuffs made for industrial environments. Stash them all over your farm: in every building, in every tractor cab, next to the animal feeding stations…anywhere you might need to grab some hearing protection.
- Use tractors with enclosed cabs.
- Install mufflers. You’ve probably noticed that unmuffled cars tend to be louder. That’s also true of farming equipment. Installing specialty noise-reducing mufflers on your equipment is a great way to lower overall sound.
- Maintain your machines. As mentioned above, old or broken equipment tends to be louder. Keep on top of machine maintenance so this doesn’t get out of hand.
- Rotate daily tasks with noise in mind. Continuous exposure to elevated sound is just as dangerous as a single impulse sound. With that in mind, try to plan out your day’s tasks in such an order that you’re not moving straight from one loud task to another; instead, build a noise break into your day by moving to a quiet task after completing a particularly loud one.
In addition to all of these daily strategies, stay on top of your hearing health by getting your hearing checked early and often. This will help you catch the early stages of hearing loss and take the appropriate action. Call Southwest Idaho Ear, Nose and Throat today to schedule an appointment.