Photo credit: Nasirun Khan
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This article on the Baylor Scott & White Health Newswise website has a video interview with Dominic Lucia, MD, at the McLane Children’s Medical Center. In the interview, he discusses the dangers of noise for children. One has to watch the video (there’s no transcript) but a lot of information is conveyed in a few minutes. Lucia talks about preventing hearing loss by avoiding noise exposure and using hearing protection. My only quibble is that he briefly mentions 85 decibels, which is the occupational noise exposure level that is too high for the public. More importantly, he says that infants shouldn’t be exposed to sounds greater than 60 decibels. I don’t think most new parents know that.
The American Academy of Pediatrics will be releasing a policy statement about noise and children on Oct. 21, in conjunction with its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Most of what’s written about noise is about the hearing loss it causes in older people. I can’t wait to see what my pediatric colleagues have to say about noise.
