Noise and Hearing Damage Simulations

Image by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash. What does it sound like to have hearing damage caused by noise? I’ve put together a short audio playlist of noise-induced hearing loss simulations. These give a small idea of what it’s like to live with tinnitus, difficulty understanding speech, and loss of music enjoyment because of preventable sensorineural […]
If Ears Bled From Everyday Noise Exposures

I’m not talking about bleeding ears from very loud acoustic trauma blowing out a person’s eardrums, e.g. explosion, bomb blast. The image for this post was a graphic for a hearing health shock campaign I planned in 2017. I wanted to raise awareness about noise risk from common everyday sound exposures, including personal listening and […]
Virtual Reality Headset with Ultrasound Exposure

Apple’s new patent for an Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality (AR/VR) headset includes ultrasonic sound waves to simulate a breeze or physical sensations on the user’s face while they interact with the virtual environment. These sound waves are super high pitched and can’t typically be heard by humans (frequencies above 20,000 Hertz). Unfortunately, ultrasonic sound […]
Personal Listening Systems are Likely Unsafe at any Sound

I was excited to have a second paper published in The Hearing Journal, co-authored with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. We’re trying to raise awareness about personal listening risk in this paper titled: Personal audio systems unsafe at any sound. Safer listening behaviours and device warnings about unsafe listening levels are likely not […]
The Danger in Headphones

I was honoured to be included in the Hearing Health Foundation Summer 2021 Entertainment issue. My article is on the danger in headphones. It includes tips on how to lower the risk with safer listening habits. Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on linkedin
Unsafe at any Sound: Hearing Loss and Tinnitus in Personal Audio System Users

This is the second of two papers I co-wrote with my colleague Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. It was accepted in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics and is now open access and free to share. This paper reviews personal audio system or personal listening device risk to auditory health from loud sound output. […]
Personal Audio System Use Can Harm Auditory Health

Dr. Daniel Fink and I presented our talk titled Personal Audio System Use Can Harm Auditory Health at the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. It was presentation 3ANS8 in the June 10, 2021 Non-Occupational Noise and Hearing Loss Session. We reviewed science showing personal listening – especially in children, teens, and young […]
Personal Listening Case Scenario in American Family Physician Journal

I was honoured to co-author this case scenario with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. The clinical topic is on making recommendations to patients on how to lower personal listening noise exposure. The goal is preventing hearing system damage in upcoming generations of personal listening users including children, teens, and young adults. Noise-induced hearing […]
Safer Personal Listening

With personal listening, it has never been easier to listen to music or audio content whenever and wherever people want. But…science shows personal listening is associated with permanent progressive hearing health damage. The hearing system falls out-of-tune, and there is distortion for pitch and loudness perception. This means people can develop tinnitus, hyperacusis or decreased […]