What do public assembly facility operations professionals need to know about hearing loss?
I will admit to some selective hearing loss, particularly when my wife wants me to do something productive at home. The truth is that nearly 35 years in the operations of public assembly facilities has caused me to lose a significant amount of my midrange hearing.
I had no idea what the longterm consequences would be from standing in front of floor-stacked sound cabinets pounding Sting’s bass or Eddie Van Halen riff’s at maximum decibel levels. I thought it was kind of cool that my clothes were vibrating with every note.
The truth is that hearing loss is one of the great unspoken consequences of the public assembly facility business. Without proper protection and regular testing, you and the people in your care can suffer permanent hearing loss as a result of your work.
Hearing loss is a major public health issue in the United States and is currently the third most common physical condition in our country after arthritis and heart disease.
Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that approximately 20 percent of all adults in the United States, 48 million persons, report some degree of hearing loss. At age 65, one out of three people has a measurable hearing loss.
Sound is measured in decibels. A decibel is the unit used to measure the level of sound. The softest sound that you can hear is 0 dB. Normal talking is at 40 dB to 60 dB. A rock concert is normally between 110 dB and 120 dB, but can be as high as 140 dB in front of the speakers (that explains it). Listening to music on headphones can be up to 110 dB. With the current levels of headphone use, particularly by young people, there is an expectation that hearing loss numbers will continue to grow.
The risk of damage to your hearing when listening to music depends on: how loud the music is, how close you may be to speakers, and how long and how often you are exposed to loud music. Sound like anyone you know?
Hearing loss is not only attributed to listening to music. The normal activities in our operations and engineering workplace can have a material impact. Exposure to loud sounds at a level over 85dB has proven to have a material effect on our hearing.
In order to address the growing problem, you may want to consider developing a Hearing Loss Prevention Program for your facility. The critical components to any Hearing Loss Prevention Program include a noise exposure monitoring program. Do you know the environment your staff is working in? Consider hearing protection devices, although this is seen as a challenging move as devices such as earplugs that are not properly installed by the wearer do not provide the desired protection. Still, making earplugs available and providing some information and training on their use is a positive action.
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends actions to prevent hazardous noise in the workplace through a PDF download called Preventing Occupational Hearing Loss — A Practical Guide at: www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/96-110
NIOSH also provides a Noise Meter download that can help you to understand what kind of decibels that many of the normal workplace activities generate. The noise meter can be found at:
www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/noisemeter_html/hp0.html
THE BOTTOM LINE
Operations and Engineering professionals in public assembly facilities are exposed to a wide variety of loud, potentially damaging noises during the course of their work. They need to be aware of the potential consequences and take the appropriate steps to protect their hearing.
Russ Simons is...
managing partner, Venue Solutions Group, and has been in this industry for more than three decades, working in arenas, stadiums, design, construction, safety and security. Send questions about any aspect of venue operation to askruss@venuestoday.com or mail questions to Venues Today, P.O. Box 2540, Huntington Beach, CA 92647.