By: Garry Gordon, MS Article first published in Safety+Health magazine. What advice can I offer my employees who are hard of hearing because of ear wax? To keep the ear healthy, it’s not just a matter of wearing proper hearing protection to protect the ear from noise or water. It’s also a matter of keeping them clean. I’ve examined the ears of industrial workers for more than four decades, and three major issues come to the forefront: hearing loss, tinnitus and