Photo credit: Wendy Wei
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
I hope that all the music-lovers who attended Lollapalooza last week brought their earplugs. Otolaryngologist Dr. Sreek Cherukuri’s offered this advice in the suburban Chicago publication, the Daily Herald. Cherukuri suffered hearing loss in his left ear when he was a DJ. Lollapalooza is Chicago’s annual outdoor music festival in historic Grant Park, which took place from Aug. 1-4.
As Cherukuri stated, sound levels at Lollapalooza can reach 120-130 decibels. That’s loud enough to cause hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis. The only thing I disagree with Cherukuri about is his citing the industrial-strength occupational safety recommended exposure limit as safe for a concertgoer. That just isn’t true. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety’s recommended exposure level of 85 A-weighted decibels* (dBA) doesn’t prevent hearing loss in workers exposed to noise, and certainly isn’t safe for the public.
With or without A-weighting, 85 decibels should never be mentioned in any advice for the public. The only evidence-based safe noise exposure to prevent hearing loss is the Environmental Protection Agency’s time-weighted average of 70 decibels for 24 hours. Due to the logarithmic nature of the decibel scale, only one hour of noise exposure at 85 dBA turns out to be same as the EPA’s calculated safe noise dose for the entire day. As I recently wrote, the actual safe noise exposure level to prevent hearing loss is probably much lower, only 55 dBA for a single noise event and a daily average of 55-60 decibels for the day.
Two other factors have to be considered. The NIOSH recommended exposure level is an average noise exposure recommendation. Some people’s ears may be more sensitive to noise damage than others, for a variety of reasons including antioxidant levels in the blood or genes that make them more susceptible to hearing loss. And, average noise exposure recommendations are not valid for vulnerable populations, which include those who are pregnant, children, older people and anyone who already has an auditory condition.
Cherukuri wears custom earplugs, but correctly states that store-bought hearing protection will also work. I would add this advice: Don’t go to rock concerts or music festivals, but if you do, use hearing protection. Because if it sounds loud, it’s too loud and your auditory health is at risk.
*A-weighting adjusts unweighted sound measurements for the frequencies heard in human speech. A-weighting is used in occupational safety recommendations because the inability to understand speech is the compensable workplace injury.
