Action Alliance
Tinnitus Awareness Week
Moving the World Toward a Cure!
May 18 – 24, 2008
Tinnitus Awareness Week Information & Activities
What is Tinnitus Awareness Week?
Tinnitus Awareness Activity Calendar (PDF) Updated information!
Talking points to share with your physician, co-workers, friends and neighbors
What you should know about tinnitus
ATA-Funded research highlights and donation reply card (PDF)
Write a letter to your senator and/or representative
Request a proclamation of TAW in your town, county or state
History of Tinnitus Awareness Week
What is Tinnitus Awareness Week?
Once again, the American Tinnitus Association (ATA) is sponsoring an exciting week of raising tinnitus awareness throughout the nation. Finding a cure for tinnitus is ATA’s number one priority. Our theme for TAW 2008, “Moving the World Toward a Cure,” is the perfect reflection of our mission. By raising dollars to support tinnitus research, we will find additional effective treatments and ultimately a cure.
The TAW calendar includes activities and suggestions to help you raise people's awareness of tinnitus and the importance of hearing protection as you spread the word in your own communities. We hope this special week will bring our nation together to build understanding and compassion for tinnitus patients everywhere.
A grassroots effort
Tinnitus Awareness Week began as a grassroots effort, and continues to be such. The backbone of the celebration has always been the individuals who take action in their own communities. Thank you to all of ATA's many volunteers and the media contacts who contribute to the growing success of Tinnitus Awareness Week! We are ready to Move the World Toward a Cure and welcome you to join our efforts once again.
Our Goal – More people, more success
We want to increase the number of people who will:- Advocate for increased public funding for tinnitus research.
- Become ATA members and help support our research program.
- Understand what tinnitus is and some of its potential causes.
- Care about others who have and suffer from tinnitus.
What You Can Do
You can help promote tinnitus awareness through a number of activities:
- Join ATA and encourage others to become members.
- Become active in ATA’s Action Alliance.
- Request a Tinnitus Awareness Day or Week proclamation from your mayor, county commissioner or governor.
- Send a letter to your senator and/or representative.
- Hand out educational materials (ATA brochures) and earplugs to the public.
- Ask the local newspapers to write an article about tinnitus.
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The History of Tinnitus Awareness Week
Better Hearing and Speech month falls in May. This is the ideal time for Tinnitus Awareness Week (TAW) with its focus on the impact tinnitus has on the lives of tens of millions of people.
Since around 1927, May has been the time to raise national public awareness, knowledge and understanding of speech, language and hearing-related disorders. Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer fun, always falls on the last Monday of May. This holiday is an appropriate time to be mindful of the very noisy world we live in. In-ear devices – such as MP3 players – continue to grow in popularity. This exposes people younger and younger to sounds that may damage their hearing, cause tinnitus and perhaps permanently impact their lives.
A timely notation for Memorial Day – tinnitus is the most common disability of our military personnel and veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The number of people inflicted with tinnitus will continue to grow if we do not fund more tinnitus research and find a cure for this annoying, and often devastating condition.
Establishing Tinnitus Awareness Week– a timeline
2003: The American Tinnitus Association (ATA) established Tinnitus Awareness Day. ATA staff distributed earplugs and information about tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss to people in downtown Portland, Ore.
2004: ATA expanded the day into an awareness week, complete with a conference held in Los Angeles, Calif. Energetic volunteers held grassroots events around the country and sought official recognition from local mayors, governors and U.S. senators. On Sunday, May 16th, ATA member, Greg Evans' syndicated comic strip, "Luann," also helped raise the public's awareness that noise is a risk factor for tinnitus.
2005: ATA expanded these efforts to an eight-day week of tinnitus awareness activities. Staff flew to Washington, D.C., where they and ATA volunteers lobbied Capital Hill lawmakers for tinnitus research funding. They met with the director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and participated in a Congressional Hearing Health Caucus.
The Los Angeles Times ran a moving feature on tinnitus, while Field and Stream published an informative article on hearing protection and tinnitus. And, for the second year in a row, tinnitus made the funny pages! On Sunday, May 29, Jim Davis's syndicated comic strip, "Garfield," was about ringing in the ears. ATA was thrilled to see the problem of tinnitus presented in a way that reached readers of all ages, using humor to effectively teach people about this common and sometimes preventable condition.
2006: During our fourth year of raising awareness about the seriousness and common occurrence of tinnitus – and the obvious need for increased funding for tinnitus research – our work started to feel like a "movement." We based our theme, “On the Right Path,” on ATA's scientifically based "Roadmap to a Cure." This document lays out the path to a cure and outlines what must occur in order to successfully arrive.
2007: Our awareness theme, "Take Action Today," reflected both our urgency and commitment. We emphasized the role of our grassroots Action Alliance program and ATA’s steadfast efforts to influence legislative priorities.
ATA continues to be very instrumental in convincing national lawmakers to call for increased tinnitus research! Last year, because of ATA’s advocacy efforts, the Department of Defense added tinnitus as a researchable condition under a special research program dedicated to studying the health and combat readiness of military personnel. This is the first time since the program’s inception that tinnitus has been an eligible research topic under this funding.
Additionally, both sides of Congress included language in the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) committee reports that called for greater cross-agency research collaboration on tinnitus among the Department of Defense (DoD), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This is an important milestone for ATA; it is the first time any congressional report has focused specifically on finding a cure for tinnitus. Their recommendations influence the all-important National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), whose decisions on research funding affect the progress of tinnitus research.
2008: Today our cause continues to gain momentum. ATA is ready, willing and able to Move the World Toward a Cure. Our top advocacy priority is to continue influencing Congress to provide more research funding from the DoD, VA and NIH.
Become involved
We hope you will continue being enthusiastic about finding a cure for tinnitus and will add your efforts to our good work. We hope we can count on you throughout the year, and especially during TAW, May 18th-24th, to articulate to decision-makers in Washington, D.C., the unique concerns of people with tinnitus. ATA is committed to a cure and the importance of funding tinnitus research continues to be at the forefront of our efforts.
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