NYC is just a loud place to live. What with sirens, subways, pile drivers and cars without mufflers, the ambient noise level here is just plain high. Then there are the experiences for which we pay good money but which have incredibly high noise levels associated with them. They include restaurants, without much carpeting or wall treatment to absorb the sound, and which, in addition, play loud background music to make it even noisier.

There is an excellent article in the academic journal, Scientific Research, that discusses the high sound levels in restaurants that are not conducive to conversation and which present health risks to patrons and employees: https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=86590

I recently went to two Broadway shows: “Six” and “& Juliet”. Both had music that triggered a noise alert on my Apple watch because the decibel levels went above 90. I’ve set my watch to notify me, which it dutifully does, when the average sound level over 3 minutes reaches or exceeds 90 decibels. I loved the music at “Six” and “& Juliet,” but it hurt my ears and I had to cover them up with my hands for a number of the songs.

The American Speech Language Hearing Association correlates time spent in noisy locations with hearing loss. Apparently, 91dBA would result in noise-induced hearing loss in 2 hours.https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/loud-noise-dangers/

Last week I went for a hearing test, after I had a dinner with friends when I asked several times for someone to repeat what she just said. As it turned out, my hearing, except for some very high notes, was “WNL”, otolaryngological code for “Within Normal Limits.” Honestly, I was surprised to learn that.

I’ll leave you with some hearing preservation advice. Always carry a set of ear plugs with you. I’m sure you’ll find they come in handy many times in the course of your average day here.

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