Volume 26 Issue 4

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 26, Issue 4
January 21, 2006

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: Years of Loud Noise May Cause Tumor

- Article 2: Internet TV Excludes People with Hearing Loss

- Article 3: Long Distance CapTel Calls No Longer Free

- Article 4: Short Takes

Our advertisers make it possible for us to provide HOH-LD-News as a free service. Please let them know you appreciate their support, and please mention that you saw their message in HOH-LD-News.

- Advertisers in this Issue
First Premium Placement: Sound Clarity Special on Clarity Professional Phone Model AP-C2210
Second Premium Placement: "In The News" - Hearing Loss News Coverage
Third Premium Placement: IHHD Online Educational Opportunities
Classified Section: One Smoke Alarm and seven Employment Opportunities

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Contact information and disclaimers are at the end of this newsletter.
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- Article 1: Years of Loud Noise May Cause Tumor
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Editor: We all know that exposure to loud noise can cause sensorineural hearing loss. Now there's evidence that it can cause acoustic neuromas, as well! Here's the story!

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New research suggests that years of repeated exposure to loud noise increases the risk of developing a non-cancerous tumor that could cause hearing loss.

"It doesn't matter if the noise comes from years of on-the-job exposure or from a source that isn't job-related," said Colin Edwards, a doctoral student in the School of Public Health at Ohio State University.

In the current study, people who were repeatedly exposed to loud noise over the span of several years were on average one-and-a-half times as likely to develop this type of tumor compared to people who weren't exposed to such noise on a regular basis.

The tumor, called acoustic neuroma, grows slowly and symptoms typically become noticeable around age 50 or older. Of the 146 people with acoustic neuroma in this study, nearly two out of three were 50 or older.

An acoustic neuroma tumor slowly presses the cranial nerve that is responsible for sensing sound and helping with balance. Symptoms include hearing loss and a constant ringing in the ears, or tinnitus.

The study is currently in the online advance access edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study will also appear in the February 15 printed edition of the same journal.

Edwards and his colleagues gathered four years of data from the Swedish portion of the INTERPHONE Study, an international study of cell phone use and tumors that affect the brain and head.

The researchers used the Swedish portion of the study because health officials there keep meticulous data on rates of acoustic neuroma development in the country's population, said Judith Schwartzbaum, a study co-author and an associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at Ohio State.

In addition to the 146 study participants with acoustic neuroma, another 564 people without the tumor who served as controls were also interviewed by a nurse. The participants in this group were randomly selected from the continuously updated Swedish population registry. Study participants ranged in age from 20 to 69.

All participants were asked if they were regularly exposed to occupational and non-occupational loud noise and, if so, for how many years. "Loud noise" was defined as at least 80 decibels - the sound of city traffic.

If the subjects said that they had been regularly exposed to loud noise, they were then asked to describe the activities during which they were exposed to that noise.

Categories for loud noise exposure included: exposure to machines, power tools and/or construction noise; exposure to motors, including airplanes; exposure to loud music, including employment in the music industry; and exposure to screaming children, sports events and/or restaurants or bars.

The researchers also collected data on the use of hearing protection.

The two types of loud noise posing the highest risk of acoustic neuroma development were exposure to machines, power tools and/or construction (1.8 times more likely to develop the tumor) and exposure to music, including employment in the music industry (2.25 times more likely to develop the tumor.)

Exposure to motors, including airplanes increased acoustic neuroma risk by 1.3 times, while regular exposure to screaming children, sports events and/or bars and restaurants increased the risk by 1.4 times.

The number of years that a person was exposed to any category of loud noise also contributed to the development of acoustic neuroma. Just five years of regular exposure to loud noise increased the chance that a person would develop acoustic neuroma by one-and-a-half times.

"It's not surprising that the longer that people are exposed to loud noise, the greater their chances become for developing the tumor," Edwards said.

The study results also suggest the importance of wearing ear protection when exposed to loud noises. People who reported that they protected their ears from loud noise had about the same risk of developing acoustic neuroma as people who were not exposed to loud noise. People who protected their hearing were also half as likely to develop acoustic neuroma as people who didn't wear ear protection.

The tumor is fairly rare, accounting for only about 6 to 10 percent of tumors that develop inside the skull. Depending on the population, anywhere from one to 20 people per 100,000 develop acoustic neuroma each year. The people with the tumor in this study had the most common type - unilateral acoustic neuroma. About 95 percent of all cases of acoustic neuroma affect only one ear. The other kind, bilateral acoustic neuroma, is inherited and affects both ears.

If the tumor is caught early enough through a thorough examination and hearing tests, a physician may be able to surgically remove it. But as the tumor grows larger, it may become attached to the nerves that control facial movement, balance and hearing, making it far more difficult to remove the entire tumor.

Edwards and Schwartzbaum conducted the study with researchers from the Institute of Environmental Medicine of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Funding for this work was provided by the European Union Fifth Framework Program; the Swedish Research Council; and the International Union against Cancer.

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"In The News" - HLW Provides Ongoing Hearing Loss News Coverage
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Hearing Loss Web (Publisher of HOH-LD-News) is thrilled to announce a new chapter on our website. Called "In the News", this section will keep you current with what's happening in the hearing loss world between weekly issues of HOH-LD-News.

We're using the same editorial discretion about what stories to include on "In the News" as we do for stories to include in HOH-LD-News. So what you'll see are the hearing loss stories that we think are important!

If you like the HOH-LD-News story selection, you'll like the "In the News" story selection.

Don't forget to bookmark:
http://www.hearinglossweb.com/news/curr.htm
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Have the news delivered directly to your email-box!

The NADezine is short, 2x a month, and contains broad

information about the work of the National Association

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NAD is not required.

http://www.nad.org/eNewsletters

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- Article 2: Internet TV Excludes People with Hearing Loss
By Jamie Berke
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Editor: You may know Jamie Berke, who is the editor of About: Deafness/HOH at http://deafness.about.com/. She is also very active in the captioning world, owning the www.captions.org website. She has long been warning people about the dangers of ignoring the issue of captioning on the web. Here's her recent post to the Captioning email list on Yahoo. Jamie has identified a really important issue, and we need to take action. As we've learned time and time again, it's far easier to get accommodations built into a system at the beginning, than to get them added on later. Thanks to Jamie for permission to share her post in HOH-LD-News.

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I hate to say "I told you so," but not too long ago I warned that in the next few years we would see television moving to the internet and that if we didn't proactively demand captions now, the next generation of deaf and hard of hearing would be left out of all the new online video content. It is happening faster than I expected!

Yahoo, Google, and AOL are all getting involved in the online video marketplace.

* AOL - I just checked out a Simpsons clip at http://www.aol.com/video/ and no captions. Checked the help feature, nothing on captions. On 11/14/05 I had posted to this list about AOL offering free television clips. They are moving ahead with their plans, as can be seen in this January 5, 2006 press release from AOL's corporate site: http://media.timewarner.com/media/newmedia/

cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=55254501.

Note at the bottom of the press release there are names and phone numbers to contact. Earlier in November 2005 I had talked to Ruth Sarfaty, an AOL vice president (her contact information is on this page: http://corp.aol.com/press/mediacontacts.shtml) but she never got back to me regarding the need for captions..

* Yahoo - Yahoo is already offering free downloads of CBS programming at http://tv.yahoo.com. I checked it out - no captions. I poked all over the Yahoo website until I finally found a page with contacts. Use this page: http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/contact.cfm I don't know which person on this list would be the best person to contact regarding closed captioning on Yahoo television. Anyone have any suggestions? I haven't e-mailed any of them yet.

* Google - See this press release from Google that has even more details than what has been in the news recently: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/video_marketplace.html At the bottom of the press release is a contact name and e-mail address. Again, I found a page of contacts: http://www.google.com/press/mediacontacts.html

It is clear to me that there is no consideration being given to accessibility in the planning of these online video services! The Internet broadcasters are rushing into the market because it is a growth field, a potential moneymaker for them, and accessibility be damned.

If we wait for legislation (Congress) and the FCC (regulations), because of the speed at which things are moving, by the time we get legislation and regulations, the internet video marketplace will be well-developed and there will be a huge amount of online video content that deaf and hard of hearing people will miss out on unless we act now to demand captions.

Are we ready to launch the Internet Television Captioning War of 2006?

PS To put things into perspective regarding my alarm over the lack of captions on the Internet, I would like to share my memory of what happened in 1977. That was the year that the now-classic Roots miniseries was on television. My social studies teacher told my class that our homework assignment was to watch Roots. I tried to watch it but of course did not understand while my classmates were able to. I didn't get to see Roots with captions until the '80s and the college years.

Now imagine this scenario for the future - a teacher with a deaf or hard of hearing student in the classroom tells the class that their homework assignment is to go on the web and download and watch a video program. If the video program does not have captions, it will be 1977 all over again.

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- Article 3: Long Distance CapTel Calls No Longer Free
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Editor: You may have seen recent reports that long distance calls placed to or from a CapTel phone are no longer free. This regulation went into effect on January 12.

Note that CapTel users must inform CapTel of their choice of long distance providers. They will not use your provider of choice until you notify them!

I'm disturbed by how this situation was handled. The FCC ruling that mandated this change was released in July of 2005, so it's not a new idea. But I don't recall seeing anything about this change until the day the changes went into effect. And I still have seen very little coverage of these new regulations.

One of the few reports I did see was from Brenda Kelly-Frey, the Director of the Maryland Relay. She sent the following report and asked me to share it with our readers.

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Effective January 12, 2006, a new regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that any long distance charges associated with your CapTel phone must be billed to the caller. This means, if you make a long distance captioned call on your CapTel phone (or if you are calling a CapTel user and the call is long distance), any long distance charges will be billed to your local telephone number.

The long distance provider you have chosen for your home service is NOT automatically applied to CapTel calls. You must contact CapTel Customer Service <http://www.captionedtelephone.com/contact-us.phtml> to have charges billed through your long distance company in addition to any long distance company you may have chosen for your home phone line. If you have any questions when you receive your phone bill, please contact your local phone service provider.

CapTel Customer Service
Email: CapTel@CapTelMail.com
Toll-free: 1-888-269-7477 Voice/CapTel
TTY: 1-800-482-2424
Fax: (608) 238-3008

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- Article 4: Short Takes
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Editor: As hearing loss becomes more of a mainstream topic we're seeing an increasing amount of press coverage of related issues. We don't have room to run all these stories, but we can pick a few interesting ones, and provide an excerpt and a link to the complete story. We'd sure like to know if you like this idea or not! ;-)

Oh, and if you like this format, you might want to check out the new section of our website that provides stories in this format on an ongoing basis. See
http://www.hearinglossweb.com/news/curr.htm

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Hearing loss is a growing problem for veterans

Now that his world is quieter, what Vietnam War veteran Romeo Rasing remembers about Navy life is the noise. "My battle station was right above the turret. We had to keep bombing day and night," said Rasing, 56, who served on the cruiser Oklahoma City early in a 22-year Navy career that included 13 years of sea duty. "When the ship was in the yard, there were all kinds of noises - grinding, chipping, banging, pounding, welding."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O2CF3108C

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Anger over hearing loss is common emotion

Hearing loss can be more frustrating and annoying than most people imagine. Trying to understand what someone is saying while only hearing half of what is said is exhausting. Add to that the poor communication habits that most people have, such as speaking without facing the person, and daily communication can become a difficult experience. Few people would disagree that there is a lot of anger among people who have hearing loss. That anger is boiling under the surface and comes out over what appears to be a minor annoyance.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F3FF5408C

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Remote control makes adjusting hearing aid easy

The wireless revolution has changed the way we access the rest of the world. Wireless remotes unlock cars and houses, and now wireless remotes operate hearing aids. For technologically savvy people, an extra gadget to play with can be an alluring option. But even those who are not computer-savvy will find remote controls easy to understand and operate. If you can manage a TV remote control, you can manage a hearing aid remote control.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W1D02318C

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- Classifieds
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One Smoke Alarm and seven Employment Opportunities appear in this issue. (Ads appear after this brief table of contents.)

Smoke Alarm for Hearing Impaired
Low Frequency Alarm Tone
www.loudenlow.com

Employment Opportunity 1
Various Opportunities
GLAD
Various Southern California Locations

Employment Opportunity 2
Physical Therapist, Registered - Framingham Campus - Part Time
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA

Employment Opportunity 3
Residential Overnight Dorm Staff (Girls) - Framingham Campus - Full Time
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA

Employment Opportunity 4
Physical Education Teacher - Framingham Campus - Full Time
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA

Employment Opportunity 5
Child Care Workers (Overnight and Residential) - Walden School
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA

Employment Opportunity 6
Occupational Therapist, Registered (OTR/L)
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA

Employment Opportunity 7
Assistant Professor - English with Deaf Specialization
Mesa College
San Diego, CA

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Smoke Alarm for Hearing Impaired
Low Frequency Alarm Tone
www.loudenlow.com
-------------------

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- Battery powered
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- Purchase at www.loudenlow.com and receive $5.00 discount or find us with Google by typing "low frequency smoke alarms"
- 30 day return policy and 3 year limited warranty

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Employment Opportunity 1
Various Opportunities
GLAD
Various Southern California Locations
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JOB OPPORTUNITIES AT GLAD

GLAD is an Affirmative Action Employer with equal opportunity for men, women and people with disabilities. For more information on the following positions, please go to: www.gladinc.org. The status of all positions is: Regular, Full-time, Non-Exempt, Full Fringe Benefits unless otherwise noted. All positions are open until filled.

* JOB DEVELOPER/INTERPRETER - Anaheim, Crenshaw, Norwalk

* HARD OF HEARING SPECIALIST - Riverside

* HIV HEALTH EDUCATOR (WSR) - Los Angeles

* HIV HEALTH EDUCATOR (MSM) - Los Angeles

* LIFESIGNS DISPATCHER - Los Angeles

* GLAD BUILDING/MAINTENANCE MANAGER - Los Angeles

If interested for any of these positions then please submit resume and application to:

Jeff Fetterman
Human Resources Specialist
Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.
2222 Laverna Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90041
V/TDD: (323) 550-4207
Fax #: (323)550-4204
E-mail: jfetterman@gladinc.org

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Employment Opportunity 2
Physical Therapist, Registered - Framingham Campus - Part Time
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
Framingham, MA
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Provide Physical Therapy services for pediatric population with a Primary diagnosis of deafness or hard of hearing along with other diagnoses such as developmental delays, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, failure to thrive, mental retardation, mental illness, CHARGE and other musculoskeletal disorders. Services will include evaluations, goal development and direct treatment. Also, the Physical Therapist will provide appropriate intervention services designed to enhance the student's potential for learning, assist the student in acquiring those functional skills needed to participate in and benefit from the educational environment, and help the student function independently.

Requirements: BS in Physical Therapy from an accredited college or university. Eligible for licensure by the State of Massachusetts Board of Allied Health. Basic American Sign Language skills preferred. Pediatric experience preferred.

Supervisor: Special Needs Program Supervisor

Functions and Responsibilities:
1. Performs all duties within compliance of the APTA recommended guidelines for practice and code of ethics
2. Performs duties of a Physical Therapist in accordance with physician's orders when medically necessary
3. Performs student evaluations and screenings pre referrals, once appropriate consent is obtained
4. Establishes treatment goals, objectives and plans that are educationally relevant and will be used in the student's educational programs
5. Communicates findings and recommendations of evaluations of Physical Therapy services to educational staff, parents, students, and when appropriate, to other professionals and agencies concerned with the student
6. Provides reassessment of students focusing on areas of need at intervals determined to be educationally relevant
7. Consults with other members of the educational team and the family to plan appropriate programs for each student as needed

Please contact:
Lynn Marshall
Personnel Coordinator
The Learning Center for Deaf Children
848 Central Street, Framingham, MA 01701
fax # 508-875-3355
phone # 508/879-5110 v/tty
or email: Inquiries@tlcdeaf.org