Photo credit: Jamie Banks by Jamie Banks, MSc, PhD, President, Quiet Communities Inc. The pressure to limit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers is growing. Recently, Montgomery County, Maryland passed legislation to phase out the sale of use of gas-powered blowers. An updated report on national emissions from gas lawn and garden equipment was released
Photo credit: Chait Goli by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies It seems that noise cameras are catching on. More cities are setting up pilot programs to determine whether these cameras will result in tickets issued for loud mufflers and, hopefully, reduce this
Photo credit: Helena Lopes by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies This BBC article covers one Swiss village's struggle with the ongoing sound of cowbells, perceived by most outsiders as a pleasant part of any pastoral environment. Writer Imogen Foulkes notes that we
Photo credit: Pixabay by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition The Scitech Daily reported on what it calls the "neurological secrets" behind hearing in noisy surroundings. It’s difficult for many mid-life and older people to follow one conversation among many in a noisy environment, like in a busy restaurant. This difficulty is called the “speech-in-noise”
Photo credit: Anna Tarazevich by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition The New York Times recently reported on the current status of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, which have now been available for a year. The Times article may be behind a paywall, so I’ll summarize what health reporter Paula Span wrote. First, the OTC hearing aid
Photo credit: Naomi Shi by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition On Oct. 21, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the professional organization of our nation’s physicians who care for children, issued a policy statement titled "Preventing Excessive Noise Exposure in Infants, Children, and Adolescents." The AAP has long been concerned about children and sun exposure, having
Photo credit: Andrea Piacquadio by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition New York Post writer Steve Cuozzo recently reported on restaurant noise in New York City, claiming that restaurants are now "noisier than ever." From published reports, we know restaurants in Manhattan are noisy, but I don’t know if they are noisier now than
Photo credit: Ed, licensed under CC BY 2.0 DEED by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York has been a presence in the community for the past 100 years, and for a number of years, it has
Photo credit: Julia Avamotive by Jeanine Botta, MPH, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition In a recent article about creative ways to use a vehicle key fob, Readers Digest recommended using a car’s panic alarm to enhance personal safety in isolated places, and to scare burglars away while at home. The publication suggests that if a parking garage
Photo credit: Hüsna Kefelioğlu by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition On the Atlas Obscura website, reporter Frank Jacobs details the loneliest road in every state in America. According to Jacobs, telematics specialists at Geotab obtained data from the United States Federal Highway Performance Monitoring System to find each state’s route with the lowest
