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CNN Live At Daybreak

Ask CNN: At What Point Does Loud Noise Damage the Ears?

Aired July 16, 2001 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA BUSSARD, NATRONA HEIGHTS, PENNSYLVANIA: Hi, I'm Lisa Bussard from Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania.

And I have a question about sound: At what point does a loud noise damage my ears?

DR. HOLLY KAPLAN, AUDIOLOGY CLINIC SUPERVISOR, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: I think we all need to realize that we live in an incredibly noisy world and that everything that we do has noise involved in it.

Noise levels that cause damage, though -- and where we really start to run into trouble -- is when we notice that we're talking louder in order to be heard and understood. So a good example of that would be something like the lawn mower and lawn equipment, leaf blowers, power edgers, things like that are very, very loud and very damaging to our hearing.

The government says that we want to look at sounds anywhere around 85 decibels. And, again, if you were thinking in your own home environment, that's the typical vacuum sweepers. Being in that type of sound over a period of time throughout the day will cause hearing damage.

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