Photo credit: Jimberg13, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Super Bowl Sunday is really noisy no matter where the event occurs, according to a report on the 9TO5Mac website. The report is based on research done on data collected by the Apple Hearing Study.
Researchers from the University of Michigan used data collected from Apple watches on more than 100,000 subjects. They reported that noise levels were 1.5 to 3 decibels higher on Super Bowl Sundays over a period of four years, from 2021 to 2024. Noise levels were greater in those who lived in the states in which the game was played.
The decibel scale is logarithmic, meaning that the small increase in noise levels represents a much larger increase in sound energy delivered to the ear. Of course, the sound levels recorded at home are much smaller than those recorded in the stadiums in which the Super Bowl, and in fact all NFL and MLB games, are played.
My wife and I haven’t been to an NFL game, but we did go to University of Southern California football games when one of our sons went to school there, and we go to Dodgers games. I insert my industrial-strength earplugs with a 27 decibel noise reduction rating to protect my hearing, and you should too.
Because if it sounds loud, it’s too loud and your auditory health is at risk.
