Facts on military hearing loss from the DoD Center for Hearing Excellence

These facts are from the DoD,

The Veterans Administration in working with “The Center for Hearing Excellence” (a military group, a VERY GOOD site) has this:

Hearing and Auditory Injury in the Military

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent an estimated $1.39B in calculated compensation for major auditory disabilities in FY2010.
The auditory system accounts for the second highest affected body system in VA-disabled veterans. 7
Tinnitus (971,990) and hearing loss (774,384) account for the two most prevalent service-connected disabilities among veterans. 8
Current trends suggest that the incidence of tinnitus and hearing loss is increasing 13-18 percent annually. 9
At the current estimated rate of increase, the number of veterans with a service-connected tinnitus disability will increase to over 1.5 million by 2014. 10
At the current estimated rate of increase, VA costs for veterans with service-connected tinnitus is projected to increase to over $2.26 billion by 2014. 10
Combined, tinnitus and hearing loss affected nearly 16 percent of veterans who began receiving VA disability compensation in FY 2012 and nearly 20 percent of veterans who began receiving VA disability in 2011. 9 10
More than 350,000 service members have reported tinnitus and more than 250,000 service members have reported hearing loss following redeployment from the Gulf War conflicts.
Noise-induced hearing loss is among the top disabilities associated with current conflicts (OEF/OIF veterans).
50-60 percent of one’s situational awareness comes from hearing. With bad hearing, it takes approximately 90 seconds to identify a target. With good hearing, it takes approximately 40 seconds. The 50 second difference could be the difference between life or death or mission success or failure. 11
Seven out of ten injuries in Theater are due to blasts; an estimated 50 percent of these blast wounded warriors experience permanent hearing loss. 11
Sustained exposure to engine noise in a convoy can be just as damaging to hearing as exposure resulting from an improvised explosive device (IED). 11

http://hearing.health.mil/HearingLoss101/StatsandFigures.aspx

oh doubters, read the facts……. Unless you think the DoD lies, this proves the harm caused by noise induced hearing loss in our military.