by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Our contacts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have informed The Quiet Coalition that the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health will be educating the public about the dangers of noise exposure at sports events, via advertisements in official printed programs for NHL, NBA, and NFL games. An example of the advertisement appears at the top of this post. One of the ads suggests that these efforts will even extend to NASCAR races.
Research done by the CDC showed that about 25% of American adults age 20-69 had noise-induced hearing loss, and that 53% of these people with NIHL had no major occupational exposure to loud noise. The hearing damage was occurring outside the workplace.
We applaud the CDC’s educational effort, but suspect that, as with creating the largely smoke-free environment we now enjoy, much more must be done. Namely, real change won’t happen until government regulations are promulgated that set standards for noise levels in different settings and require the use, or at least the offer, of hearing protection devices to attendees. Nothing less will protect the nation’s auditory health.
