Oregon Public Broadcasting

Hearing loss might not seem like a major health concern for the military. But according to a veterans' center that studies hearing, it's the most common disability among soldiers and veterans.

The Veterans Administration spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on hearing aids and rehabilitation. Amelia Templeton reports on a Portland effort to educate soldiers about the problem.

Henry Dunn is a 67-year-old Vietnam war veteran. He's listening to a piano player in the lobby of the Portland VA Medical Center. He wears $4,000 hearing aids, paid for by the VA.

Like most veterans, he didn't lose his hearing in a single disaster. It was the result of being around loud noises much of his life.

Henry Dunn: "Being a shop teacher for nine years in a metal shop doesn't help. I was in field artillery for four years. In Vietnam I had two mortar rounds go off really close in front of me and ring my ears."

Dunn says he never wore any ear plugs or ear muffs in the military.

Dr. Robert Folmer is trying to help soldiers change their habits. He manages a hearing loss prevention program for the Department of Defense and the VA.

Robert Folmer: "Hearing loss from noise exposure accumulates over a lifetime."

Folmer says the Army has specialized hearing protection systems that allow soldiers to block out background noise but still hear radio communication.

But he says soldiers don't always take ear protection seriously.

Robert Folmer: "Some people think they're inconvenient, some people think they interfere with communication."

And ear protection can't prevent all hearing problems. Researchers who work with soldiers returning form Iraq and Afghanistan say that traumatic brain injuries can interfere with hearing.

But  Folmer says soldiers can be doing a lot more to protect their ears.

Robert Folmer: "Some of them put in their iPods, their ear phones, and crank up their music, to try to drown out the sound around them that's already loud. So they're kind of adding to the problem."

Folmer has built three small soundproof booths that allow soldiers to test their own hearing and learn about hearing loss. The first has been installed in the VA center at OHSU.

It's basically a room with a touch screen computer.  Soldiers can use a volume meter to find out if their IPods are cranked too high. And they can watch educational videos like this one.

Video: "You've been exposed to loud noise no matter what your branch of service, your rank or when and where you've served."

Today there aren't any veterans using the booth so I give it a try. The computer plays little beeps in my ear and asks me to respond by hitting a button.Then it informs me I'm suffering mild hearing loss.

Folmer says that's pretty normal. Folmer hopes that his booths will help convince veterans their hearing is essential.

But Henry Dunn, the Vietnam Vet and former shop teacher, isn't wearing his hearing aids today.

Henry Dunn: "You hear a bit too well with them. I mean, when you have $4,000 hearing aids, you can hear people discussing things at the counter over there that you might not want to be listening to."

Folmer's educational hearing booths will also be shipped to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and Fort Lewis in North Carolina.

Editor's Note: In the original version of this story we misidentified a military installation that is going to have a booth where veterans can test their hearing. Fort Bragg in North Carolina is scheduled to get one of the booths. And, in an additional correction, Portland VA medical center is not part of Oregon Health and Science University. OPB regrets the errors.