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Members of the marines and soldiers sent to Iraq or Afghanistan only to encounter roadside firing trysts and bombings come home in epidemic quantities with a huge problem known as hearing mutilation along with ringing in their ears so the military saw the need for shielding their men two times more. Hearing damage is the number 1 disability in the war on terror, to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear. Around the figures of 70,000 within the 1.3 million troops who have served in these war zones are now collecting disability for a strange condition that has a nature of a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears called tinnitus and on the other hand soldiers on disability for hearing loss reach up to 58,000 already. Many are surprised by these soaring numbers. Utilization of a fearsome weapon is something that the Pentagon did not fully anticipate which the powerful roadside bombs are of course, and this is said to be the biggest justification. Very strong blasts like this one would rupture the cochlea and break bones inside the ear with its forceful changing of the air pressure within the ear. Plus, most of the war schemes would include ambushes, firefights and bombings which are unexpected so the fighters do not have time to put on the hearing protection gear given by the military. I need to put my ear plugs first, can you wait is something that the soldiers there cannot say. In addition, some servicemen on patrol refuse to wear earplugs for fear of dulling their senses and missing sounds that can make the difference between life and death. On the other hand, some weren't able to receive any ear plugs before they were sent to the war zones while some just forgot to bring them. For a former serviceman, the noise of war is still with him more than four years after the simultaneous explosion of three roadside bombs near Baghdad. He gave details to how it might have been funny that when the bomb went off, he didn't feel his leg gone, but what he remembers was his ears ringing. His leg was blown off below the knee in 2003. His legs today may be as good as new, as it had been replaced by a prosthetic one, but then the awful ringing in his ears would never go away. It had been disclosed by the military audiology reports that about 60 percent of the workforce from America who have been exposed to blasts suffer from lasting loss of hearing while 49 percent of them would suffer from the condition, tinnitus. From total deafness or a steady loud ringing that destroys the ability to concentrate in an individual, down to a mild form of damage, such as an inability to hear whispers or low pitches is basically the extent of the hearing loss. There isn't any known solution for hearing loss, also known as tinnitus. It is a fact that from World War II and well through the war in Vietnam, hearing damage has been a chief disability among many people. But then even with all the lessons learned from the previous years it is a fact that the Army troops are still suffering from hearing damage similar to the one the World War II veterans have been suffering from and this is according to VA figures. But one must not compare World War II with the war in Iraq as these are entirely different. With the truly vast artillery barrages, epic tank battles and the terrorizing bombing raids that all transpired during the second world war, it can be said that this war was really different and was waged to an extremely far greater scope. Given the military hardware utilized today, even the top devices for hearing protection is only partly effective, and only if it's utilized in the right manner. There were some lucky members of the Marines who were given a $7.40 pair of double sided earplugs, with one side designed to protect from weapons fire and blasts while the other part shielded the ears from noises created by tanks and aircrafts. Some of the things, sadly, end up virtually useless as the Marines were not given instructions in how to use the earplugs, so some of them would use the wrong sides or even cut them in half on other times. But nowadays, instructions need to be handed out along with the earplugs. State of the art earplugs that contain digital processors that obstruct damaging sound waves from gunshots and explosions and still allow users to hear everyday noises are now being bought and distributed among the members of the Marines and the Navy. Those who are dispatched to Afghanistan and Iraq would be endowed with recently developed one sided earplugs that would cost about eight dollars and fifty cents and testing of these thing on the soldiers have begun already. Above and beyond, it is great to know that the Navy today is working closely with a group from San Diego in developing a powerful medicine which can be the one thing that will protect the ears of the multitude of men. There was, in the year 2003, a study which was participated by five hundred and sixty six respondents who showed that there was about 25 to 27 percent in decrease of permanent hearing loss. But now for the first time in American warfare and in the past three years, we see the front line having hearing specialists or hearing trained medics and no longer staying at the remote hospitals in the fields.
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