No Hearing Protection at Stadium Sports Events
I was excited to watch the Canada vs Belgium World Cup men’s soccer match in Qatar. I had no doubt our team would do Canada proud. But this isn’t about a well-played game by the Canadian team (despite the loss). It’s about people ignoring the hearing health risks of stadium noise exposures. Being amazing fans […]
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 […]
Protecting Hearing at Concerts
Images by Jan L. Mayes taken at Vancouver, BC, Canada concert on Avatar Going Hunting Tour 2022. Whether it’s pop, rock, or country, amplified music at concerts is loud enough to damage hearing health. I’m an old bat in my 50’s and have tinnitus. That doesn’t stop me from going to see my favourite bands […]
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 […]
If Only We Could See the Damage of Noise Exposure
I was very honoured to have my article featured in Tinnitus Today, Spring 2022 issue. I discuss science from my 2021 papers published in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, co-authored with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. My main point is simple: If Only We Could See the Damage of Noise Exposure. If our […]
Protecting Hearing for Life
As a member (retired status) of Speech-Language & Audiology Canada, I was honoured to have my article featured in Communique for World Hearing Day, 2022. The title and content of Protecting Hearing for Life reflects this year’s theme of, “To hear for life, listen with care.” In summary, our modern society exposes us to harmfully […]
Too Loud: Nonoccupational Noise Exposure Causes Hearing Loss
In July, my colleague Dr. Daniel Fink and I had two papers accepted for publication in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics. Both papers are open access and free to share. The first paper is on noise risk to auditory health from common everyday sound sources that are too loud. This includes movies (including animated and […]
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 […]
Fake crowd noise poses real health threat
[Originally published at silencity.com] With coronavirus pandemic restrictions on fan attendance, NFL football teams have lost the stadium crowd noise once called a home field secret weapon by the Seattle Seahawks. As a solution, the NFL has developed club and stadium specific crowd-noise audio to use during TV broadcasts. While the TV crowd-noise audio will […]