Proposition 53K0484

Proposition de résolution relative à une approche globale des dommages auditifs.

General information ¶

Authors

Open Vld Maggie De Block, Herman De Croo, Gwendolyn Rutten, Ine Somers, Carina Van Cauter
Vooruit Maya Detiège

Submission date

Oct. 27, 2010

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

noise protection noise resolution of parliament music safety standard public health

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

June 30, 2011 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker.

I want to say that we live in a society where noise has taken place and where decibels rule as masters. On the eve of the Werchter Festival, of the Francofolies, of the Esperanzah Festival! and many others, this proposal for a comprehensive approach to hearing loss reminds us that culture is a tool of emancipation. It is through it that the blind sees and the deaf hears.

As for the surplus, I refer to my written report.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, I thank the rapporteur for his eternal enthusiasm and for the fact that he wanted to be a rapporteur.

Colleagues, the committee unanimously agreed that there is a hearing problem among young people and children. One must be able to hear in order to be able to listen. This is a good advice for politicians.

One in five Flemish youths already suffer from hearing loss and have the hearing of a fifty-year-old. Mr. Bart Vinck, professor of audiology at the UZ Gent, states that the second peak of hearing loss occurs in very young people. The first peak is situated around the age of five and the second peak is already from fourteen to sixteen years, while that was only around forty or fifty years old. If no action is taken, half of our population will be very hearing-deficient by 2050.

The major culprits of the fact that our hearing declines are mp3 players, increasingly loud music as well as the increasing number of fuws and concerts. It happens systematically that young people come out of definitive hearing loss after a night.

I don’t want to make a medical statement here, but hearing loss is caused by prolonged exposure to sharp sounds or high noise levels. This damages the sensory hairs in the hearing organ. When the duration of the exposure and the noise level have remained limited, this can lead to ear suction and hearing may remain away for a while, but this can still recover. More damage, however, is irreparable and therefore definitive.

From a medical point of view, therefore, it is very important to say that hearing damage is irreversible and cannot be cured. Ears are more than disruptive to work, student life, social contacts and, in rare cases, they also lead to nervous conditions and so on.

Important in this debate is that people are not aware of exposure to dangerous sound waves. This is the purpose of this resolution.

Part of the responsibility lies with the communities. As we know, Minister Schauvliege in the Flemish government recently, during the week in which we discussed the resolution in the committee, took a number of measures.

Our powers are complementary and lie in other areas.

I would like to emphasize that in the preparation of this resolution, the opinion of the High Health Council has been our guide.

What can we decide?

First, we can work with warnings on the packaging of all kinds of music players, so that everyone can be clearly informed about the problem. In this context, I think of the young children that we will see sitting in the back of the cars during the holiday period, listening to music with earphones. We must be aware that we must protect our children and that we should not expose them to such noises.

In order to ensure safety, limit values must be applied. It is important that these limit values cannot be bypassed, by amplifiers for example. Whoever thinks that 90 decibels is little, don’t be mistaken! If one does not suffer hearing damage, one should only be subjected to such a noise intensity for fifteen minutes. We all know that children often sit in the back of the car for a long time and tend to open the volume button sharply. There was also a lot of interest in protecting our children. For children, the threshold is much lower and they are therefore injured faster than adults.

Second, we do not have sufficient epidemiological data in Belgium. If we want to map hearing loss, we must collect data and use the techniques that have been established by the High Health Council.

Finally, we also need to measure properly. There are several ways to measure noise, but not all of them have the same value. It is therefore important that the same value can be used.

I don’t want to be too technical, but the last aspect of the discussions were the earphones. It is essential that the quality of the earplugs is good and that they are available everywhere. That was the last part of the resolution. We believe that the ear caps should also be available in commerce and especially in the pharmacy.

The objective of this resolution is therefore to raise public awareness of the danger of hearing loss in the event of prolonged exposure to excessive noise waves. With the holidays on the doorstep and so many open-air festivals and music festivals on the verge, that danger is unimaginable.

I count among my patients a musician who has suffered hearing damage. He whispers when he sees people carrying their children on their shoulders or seeing places on the dranghek in front of them, causing the children to stand in front of the boxes. They do not know better; they feel the sound vibrating in their belly and in their ears and laugh with it, but the next day they may no longer hear.

I therefore advocate for awareness of the existing danger. We cannot provide medical assistance; we are actually powerless. Prevention is the best weapon.

I would like to thank my colleagues in the committee for their constructive cooperation and I hope that the government will be able to implement this resolution correctly.

Prevention is always better than cure. In this case, it is also even cheaper for the patient and for the health insurance. Mrs. Minister, you will ⁇ not be insensitive to that argument. All preventive measures will be even cheaper than much too expensive hearing aids.