Photo credit: Chuck Kardous, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist If I had $1 for every time I see an article incorrectly state that 85 decibels (dB) is “safe” for auditory health, I would be rich. It’s especially frustrating to read in a musicradar.com article with a
Photo credit: Sound On from Pexels by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist (Retired) It’s encouraging to see a recent university news article on the danger of hearing damage from personal listening with earbuds or headphones. Unfortunately, it shares the myth that our ears adapt to loud volumes. It’s true many people with noise-induced hearing damage
Photo credit: Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist (Retired) Flawed noise risk assessments shared in the media are dangerous for public health. This is the case for a recent Arizona Daily Sun article that recommends a 60/60 rule for personal listening with headphones. This rule suggests that personal listening at 60%
by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist (Retired) The World Health Organization has published the first ever World Report on Hearing. This report shows it's more cost-effective to invest in prevention and universal health coverage for ear and hearing care than to continue paying rising costs of untreated hearing loss related to impaired learning, social isolation,
Photo credit: Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition The Channel News Asia lifestyle site provides sound advice on what people in mid-life can do to preserve their hearing. There’s nothing really new, but the article highlights the fact that hearing loss may first become apparent in mid-life, and that
Photo credit: vxla licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition This post on the Digital Trends site discusses how to protect yourself from noise-induced hearing loss. As the article notes, NIHL is insidious in its onset, and predictable in its course. I disagree with one statement, however. Namely, the author
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition The World Report on Hearing was released on March 3, World Hearing Day. This 253 page document is a comprehensive review of all the causes of hearing loss across the lifespan. For adults, noise exposure at work and at play is a major cause of hearing loss,
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition Those who follow my blog posts may recall that I’ve spent much of the pandemic lockdown doing various home repair projects at our house and at my older in-laws’ house. Projects have included restoring a large trellis shade structure, replacing door frames, snaking out clogged outdoor area
Photo credit: zydeaosika from Pexels by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition I think every other blog post I have written has been about some aspect of noise or hearing, but I’m going off message today to share with you this important article from Journal of the American Medical Association. Well, perhaps I’m not
Photo credit: Jadson Thomas from Pexels by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition A new movie on Amazon Prime, "Sound of Metal," deals with an aging rocker's relatively sudden loss of hearing. I read the review on Live Mint. Most of the time hearing loss occurs gradually, but sometimes, as in the case of
