85 dB is not a safe noise level to prevent hearing loss

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by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

The title of my article in the January 2019 issue of The Hearing Journal says it all. No, 85 decibels (dB) is not a safe noise exposure level to prevent hearing loss.

In the absence of a federal guideline, recommendation, or standard for non-occupational noise exposure, the 85 dB (actually dBA, A-weighted to reflect the frequencies heard in human speech) occupational noise exposure standard seems to have become the de facto safe noise exposure standard in the U.S. and around the world.

This misunderstanding might be why the world has gotten noisier over the last four decades.

I hope those charged with protecting the public’s health–including the Centers for DC, FTC, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and state and local agencies–will take steps to protect the nation’s auditory health in 2019.