Launch of New WHO Campaign

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Applauds Launch of New WHO Campaign

Association Served as Advisor to WHO on Campaign’s Development,

Will Promote Campaign Messages and Resources Throughout the Year

(Rockville, MD- March 3, 2015) Today is International Ear Care Day, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is using the occasion to applaud and promote the launch of Make Listening Safe, a new campaign by the World Health Organization (WHO) for stemming the threat of noise-induced hearing loss.

The WHO campaign aims to encourage young people to practice safe listening when they recreate, be that listening to personal audio technology, attending concerts or sporting events, or engaging in other forms of entertainment.

More than 43 million people 12–35 years of age worldwide live with disabling hearing loss from various causes, according to WHO. To keep such numbers from increasing, the agency is launching Make Listening Safe today.

In a statement for the launch event at WHO headquarters in Geneva, ASHA President Judith L. Page, PhD, CCC-SLP, said ASHA was honored to have collaborated with WHO on the development of the new campaign and is committed to spreading its safe listening messages.

“Giving a warning about a debilitating condition that forms as insidiously as noise-induced hearing loss can be challenging,” Dr. Page noted, “yet delivery of this warning is demanded by the potential substantial costs involved, individual and societal, in vital areas like academic performance, employment opportunities, and social development and interaction.”

In part, ASHA plans to share information about WHO’s campaign though a long-standing safe listening effort of its own,Listen To Your Buds. WHO considers ASHA’s Buds campaign an effective outreach tool and its awareness of the campaign prompted the global health agency to invite ASHA to collaborate on Make Listening Safe.

Some of ASHA’s efforts are expected to culminate in May, Better Hearing and Speech Month in the United States. Current plans for May include a safe-listening concert for children in Washington, DC, and the release of a new national survey related to the topic of safe listening.

ENDS

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