The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Noisy environment could lead to voice abuse

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 16, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Noisy environment could lead to voice abuse

R. Sujatha

“Technology is advanced enough to identify the problem and prevent it from occurring”

CHENNAI: It could be due to excessive talking, throat clearing, coughing, inhaling irritants, smoking, yelling, or speaking too loudly in an abnormal pitch.

But there are a large number of people who abuse their vocal chords for various reasons, according to doctors.

It may often be temporary resulting in change in the quality of the voice, specialists point out. “Anybody who has to speak in a noisy environment such as lawyers, doctors and marketing people, or even children, face the risk of voice abuse. Any seasoned politician will also have strained his voice,” said Ravi Ramalingam, ENT surgeon, KKR ENT Hospitals.

Those who constantly abuse their voice may require surgery. “Such people typically get vocal chord nodules called a singer’s nodule or a teacher’s nodule. The vocal chords don’t vibrate normally and the voice becomes hoarse. If surgery is done at the right time and the post-operative therapy is done, the vocal chords could regain their normal ability,” he said.

Last year, Sri Ramachandra University’s Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences conducted a study involving around 400 professionals including singers, teachers, politicians and hawkers.

It found that 78 per cent of the 100 politicians studied had some sort of voice problems, said Prakash Boominathan, principal author of the study that was published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Speech Language and Hearing.

While at work

There are other lesser-studied segments such as those working in call centres who also abuse their voice. Adverse conditions such as background noise, dust, pollution and amplifiers also affect the voice.

Generalised frequency boosts in amplifiers seem to affect women speakers since they have to strain their vocal chords more, he explained.

Call centre employees suffer because of distractions such as the chatter of other employees around them, straining to understand different accents and being forced to speak politely thus suppressing their emotions.

A four-year programme with schoolteachers had improved awareness about the need to take care of their voice, Dr. Boominathan recalled. Technology is advanced enough to identify the problem and prevent it from occurring, said Dr.Ramalingam.

“Avoid breathing smoke in any form, refrain from alcohol as it is a dehydrating agent and stop coughing, whispering or acts such as excessive throat clearing. Avoid steroids and anti-allergy medicines that typically dry your throat.”

Voice abusers are advised to drink at least two to three litres of water, avoid caffeine and aerated beverages and include plenty of vegetables and fruits.

Those who have excessively abused their vocal chords are also advised to rest their voice.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu