NPR covers noise

by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

Photo credit: Andrea Piacquadio

NPR radio station WHYY in Philadelphia had a recent show, now available as a podcast, about how noise affects our health. Experts interviewed include professor Rick Neitzel at the University of Michigan, audiologist Bryan Fligor and Meg Wallhagen at the University of California, San Francisco.

Neitzel is also the principal investigator for the Apple Hearing Study, Fligor developed the “60/60 rule,” which states that safe use of personal listening devices should be for 60 minutes at 60% of maximum output and Wallhagen wrote a classic article about the stigma of hearing loss. Her article has been cited 550 times, including by me in some of my published papers.

The podcast has lots of good advice. My only quibble with the podcast itself is that there wasn’t a transcript. I read much faster than people talk. I also have a few minor quibbles about some of the things that were said — for example, the actual safe noise exposure level to prevent auditory damage may be much lower than the sound pressure levels mentioned. Overall, it was both enjoyable and informative, and I recommend that you listen to it, too.