Health department launches own 'silent protest' campaign

Talk about a moment of silence.

The Department of Health (DOH) launched yesterday a different kind of "silent protest" - a largely non-political campaign against noise pollution.

Health officials urged the public to observe a minute of silence starting at 3 p.m. and make it a daily habit, with or without rosaries.

In line with its campaign, the DOH distributed flyers containing "a recipe for a quiet diet," encouraging greater public awareness of the danger of excessive noise.

Among the DOH's suggestions are: avoid honking horns; replace noisy activities with quiet ones; turn down the volume of radios and television sets; wear hearing protection when visiting a noisy environment, and get a free hearing screening test in government health facilities.

DOH non-communicable service chief Dr. Florante Trinidad said the campaign's objective was to combat a high prevalence of hearing loss due to noise pollution.

Dr. Teresita Cucueco of the Occupational Safety and Health Center said about 15 million workers or half of the country's labor force were exposed to high noise levels, putting them at risk of hearing loss.

Among the industries identified with high incidence of noise-induced hearing loss are mining, construction, manufacturing and power plants.

Cucueco said workers in high-risk industries were exposed to noise above the normal permissible level of 80 decibels.

Health workers said that exposure to excessive noise was the major avoidable cause of permanent hearing loss worldwide. The DOH hopes that by cutting down on noise pollution, the incidence of hearing loss will be minimized.