Photo credit: Marcelo Chagas from Pexels
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Our friends at Hearing Health Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit funder of hearing research, have informed us about their new public advertising campaign to let commuters–especially young people–know that playing music too loud on personal listening devices, also called personal audio systems or personal music players, can cause permanent hearing damage.
The Keep Listening campaign responds to the global hearing loss emergency and promotes healthy hearing habits for life. The outdoor ads and accompanying 30-second “Grenades” video were created by the award-winning Chicago creative agency The Escape Pod.
We welcome Hearing Health Foundation to efforts by the Quiet Coalition and other groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Ear Peace Save Your Hearing Foundation, to educate the public about the dangers of loud noise for hearing.
I advise people to follow a simple rule: if it sounds loud, it’s too loud and your hearing is at risk.
Increase the distance from the sound source, leave the noisy environment, or insert ear plugs.
And if you listen to music or podcasts or books on tape, keep the volume down.
It’s as simple as that!