ResearchFireworks not only damage the eyes and hands, but also the ears. According to a study by VeiligheidNL among more than two thousand Dutch people between the ages of 20 and 75, 6 percent of adults who lit fireworks or viewed fireworks outdoors last New Year suffered some form of hearing damage. “Consider a ringing in the ear, deafness, a dull feeling or distortion of sound,” the organization said.
The attention for other protective measures, such as safety glasses, also seems to be waning now that everything is allowed again after the corona lockdowns. SafetyNL calls on everyone to protect eyes and ears and says it has the support of doctors and medical centers, among others.
“It comes as no surprise that more than 500,000 Dutch adults have probably suffered hearing damage,” SafetyNL says. “The use of hearing protection has been relatively low for years. Of the adult Dutch people who lit fireworks last New Year’s Eve, only 15 percent used hearing protection, while this applied to only 4 percent of the viewing adults.”
“A single loud bang can destroy things in your ear and you usually notice that immediately. But even if you don’t feel it right away, you can suffer hearing damage. Every person can only handle a certain amount of loud noise. You have to think of it as a bucket. It becomes fuller and fuller and one day it will overflow,” says Louise Straatman, ENT specialist at UMC Utrecht.
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