Published in The ASHA Leader, May 2013

In a world where noise never stops, hearing threats bombard us every day. Take a tour of some of America’s noisiest environments—and bring your earplugs.

Noise pervades our society. The booms, screeches and reverberations of traffic, manufacturing, construction and airplanes can’t be avoided in daily life. And the onslaught is magnified for those whose jobs require noisy tools and tasks: soldiers and police officers firing guns and sounding sirens, farmers and factory workers running heavy machinery, or airport workers directing thundering jets.

But one person’s unpleasant noise may be another’s sought-after sound: Concerts, restaurants and bars, movies, and sporting events all generate high noise levels—some loud enough to damage hearing, especially with prolonged exposure.

No matter how “noise” is defined—as loud, discordant, unharmonious, unpleasant, undesired, unexpected or simply something that interferes with hearing—none of these definitions truly characterizes noise’s effects on human beings. Many offending stimuli affect not only our hearing but also our well-being: Noise exposure has been implicated in cases of sleep disturbance, heart disease and hypertension, among other adverse effects.

See entire article here.

Published in The ASHA Leader, May 2013

by: Angela Adrian, MA, CCC-SLP and Maureen Fischer, MS, CCC-A

Over the course of eight hours one recent Saturday, my family and I attended a Division 1 NCAA basketball game and later, my son’s talent show in his grade school gym. I was prepared for the elevated sound pressure levels and range of frequencies at the game, from crowd noise to the throbbing bass of piped-in music, and recorded sound pressure levels as high as 95 dBA during especially loud moments.

But I was caught off-guard by the noise levels at the grade school production. As the talent show progressed, a soloist took the stage and belted out what would have been an impressive vocal effort without amplification. Combined with the band’s runaway volume and the unforgivingly hard acoustics of the cinderblock gymnasium, I clocked her amplified vocal at a whopping 97 dBA—significantly higher than my highest reading in the basketball arena earlier that day.

I used to carry a traditional sound-level meter to various hearing screening sites, in a suitcase too big to carry onto an airplane. Obviously, it’s not feasible to bring such a device to a basketball game or talent show. But after installing a sound meter application on my smartphone, I can objectively measure the sound pressure level in any situation. So what did I do in the gym? I pulled out my phone, of course, and measured the noise.

See entire article here.