Phto credit: David Reber licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This article predicted that crowd noise in Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, would be a problem for the visiting New England Patriots. Arrowhead Stadium is where the Guinness world record stadium noise of 142.2 A-weighted decibels (dBA) was recorded. That exceeds the OSHA maximum permissible exposure level for occupational noise.
Well, it was noisy, but the Patriots won in overtime and will be in the Super Bowl. And in New Orleans, the visiting Los Angeles Rams quieted the noisy New Orleans Saints crowd, also by winning in overtime, setting a matchup with the Patriots.
I hope those attending the few remaining football games–the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl are the only professional games until August–wear hearing protection. Because any temporary symptoms of ringing in the ears or muffling of sound indicate that permanent auditory damage has occurred, presaging noise-induced hearing loss.
There’s no cure for hearing loss, which makes government inaction in the face of intentionally loud noise particularly galling. Noise-induced hearing loss is 100% preventable, and to not get it, we simply have to avoid loud noise or wear hearing protection.
So if you are headed to the few remaining games, bring your earplugs–because if it sounds too loud, it IS too loud!
