by Daniel Fink, MD, Founding Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Maybe one day the Guinness Book of World Records will have a category for the most people sustaining auditory damage at one time at an indoor sports event? Because that’s what happened in Lawrence, Kansas, at the University of Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse on February 13, 2017. A new world record was set for indoor noise at a sports event: 130.4 decibels. The previous “winner,” the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena, set a record of 126.4 decibels just two weeks earlier.
It was a great game, undoubtedly sold out. Kansas won in overtime, coming back from a 67-60 deficit with 1:13 to play in regulation to tie the game, and then won in overtime. The few disheartened fans who left early missed the conclusion of a one of the season’s best basketball games. Famed Kansas coach Bill Self called it “the most remarkable win I’ve ever been a part of.” But his ears, the players’ ears, the ears of team and fieldhouse staff, and those of the capacity crowd of 16,300, undoubtedly also suffered permanent auditory damage. That’s because 130.4 decibels is about as loud as a four-engine jet plane from 100 feet away, but the auditory injury threshold (the point at which a hearing injury may occur) is only 75 to 78 decibels.
Maybe one day the NCAA, which touts “Student-Athlete Well-Being” as one of its core principles, will show some concern for the auditory health of its student-athletes and ban this type of silly (yet dangerous) competition at NCAA events.
But if not, then how about a contest to see how many NCAA student athletes and sports event attendees can be blinded at one time by the host NCAA institution shining powerful laser lights into the stands and team benches at the sports arena? Hey, a world record is a world record, right?
Or maybe reason will prevail and the people who have the power to stop this senseless and dangerous contest will come to their senses? They can’t say that they didn’t have notice, because my letter to the editor of The Kansas City Star was published on Monday, February 20th. Your move, NCAA.
Originally posted at Silencity.com.
