The politics of pre-conditioning residents in Western Sydney to the impending noise of airlines taking off and landing at the new Western Sydney Airport, Badgerys Creek, scheduled to open in 2026, includes information about flight paths and predicted noise levels in decibels.
A noise level of 60 decibels (dB) and above is considered the benchmark for when sleep would be disturbed. Suburbs next to the airport … are predicted to experience these noise levels at least 10 to 19 times a night. ABC News, 27 June 2023
The same informative concern and care about the effects of sound levels of aircraft noise on Sydney’s citizens should be applied to sound levels way above 60 decibels from amplified music (live and recorded) in school concerts, music and dance studios, pubs, bars, plazas and harbour cruises.
This blog post is a wake up call to politicians, schools, teachers, music and dance studios, local councils, and owners and operators in entertainment, hospitality companies, and the NSW Environment Protection Authority NSW (EPA NSW), the NSW Department of Health, and the NSW Department of Education, on noise management and the risks posed to hearing health, especially to children in schools, by the laissez-faire approach to it.
Prolonged and/or repeated exposure to sound levels 85 dB or above can cause permanent damage to hearing and conditions such as tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiovascular disease.
Let's start at THE pub
The transcript below is from a conversation between me and a deejay, a self-described sound engineer, who was operating a karaoke machine in the outdoor entertainment area of a pub in outer Western Sydney, a block away from a relative’s home where I was staying with family in September 2023. The karaoke machine was being played at such high dB levels that the lyrics of the songs could be heard clearly outside residences another block away.
The conversation took place on a Saturday night on the footpath across the road from the pub. The deejay was curious as to why I was there taking videos of the pub's outdoor entertainment area with my phone.
MM: You should be wearing hearing protection.
DJ: I do, not when I'm in there for two minutes but when I'm actually deejaying myself I do. A lot of the boys (other karaoke machine operators employed by the same dj company) do too.
MM: You know you'll finish up with irreversible hearing damage?
DJ: I've already got tinnitus and I'm only 23 years old. Ridiculous!
MM: And that's from?
DJ: That's from this shit! Yeah. It's not real nice.
MM: That's the point I was going to make, there are regulations for people who are employed, they have a voice. But there are no regulations to protect the hearing of customers in your audience listening, drinking, and maybe dancing.
DJ: It's peaking at around 100 dB (in the marquee), it's averaging around 85 dB - 90 dB. And you come outside and it's 85 dB or less. It's not much louder than what it is here, outside of that tent (marquee). I don't know why or how? It's just the bottom end that carries, especially on a clear night like this. [Lower frequency sounds travel further than high frequency sounds]
Sound EFFECTS
Sound waves surround us when we are awake or asleep and even if we are in a coma. The pressure of sound waves vibrates bones in the skull such as the mastoid, and the tympanic membrane in the inner ear which stimulates the vestibulocochlear nerve. The brain interprets this as sound.
The effects of sound on the mind and body increase or decrease depending on the source, proximity, topography, and the frequency and amplitude of the sound waves produced. Poignantly, research by psychologist, Dr Neil Todd, Manchester University, an expert in music perception, concludes the sacculus within the balance-regulating vestibular system in the inner ear, may be a conduit to the hypothalamus and the sensations of riding a roller coaster or grooving to loud music above 90 dB. Ref.1.
The physical force of extremely loud sound can be so strong and intense that it can make the chest wall move and alter heart rate. The vagus nerve controls heart rate under normal circumstances but it also has another function linked to the stomach. If the heart is induced to beat by very loud percussive sound pounding on the chest cavity, it can result in zombie-like euphoria. It can also cause sickness in the stomach and damage the vestibulocochlear nerve and hearing irreversibly.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over one billion young people globally are at risk of hearing loss due to sound exposure in recreational settings. The risk of permanent hearing injury due to unsafe listening is both avoidable and costly. Ref.2.
Seeing Sound Waves
The National Institute Occupational Safety Health, USA (NIOSH) offers a free app enabling iPhones to be used as sound level meters, making it easy to see, measure and record sound level readings and to evaluate the risks of hearing damage, especially to children and young people who assume the health of their hearing is being protected by responsible adults.
Soundly a shopping comparison website for all things hearing health, lists what it sees as the Top Decibel Apps iPhone and Android. The NIOSH app is one of them.
Reducing sound levels to below 85 dB is the best way to prevent hearing loss and other effects of excessive and unnecessary noise with additional benefits of increased alertness, engagement, interaction and satisfaction, according to NIOSH.
WHO Says?
The World Health Organisation’s WHO global standard for safe listening venues and events, 2022 is based on recreational scenarios where sound amplified excessively is or ought to be of concern with regard to safe listening and the risks of permanent hearing loss if those concerns are ignored or denied.
“Safe listening” refers to a set of practices and behaviours that promote the enjoyment of amplified music while reducing the risk of permanent hearing injury. Adopting safe listening practices at venues and events supports audience members to continue enjoying music into the future. The risk to hearing is dictated by a combination of sound level and cumulative duration of exposure. In the recreational context, listening can be made safer by: i) reducing the sound level; and/or ii) reducing the duration of exposure; and/or iii) reducing the frequency of exposure (i.e. being exposed less often).
The amount of energy doubles for every 3 dB increase in sound intensity. Hence, a person may receive the same "sound dose" listening to music at 80 dB for 8 hours a day as listening to 100 dB for 5 minutes.Ref.3.
Knowing the WHO standard for safe listening makes sound level measurements meaningful and potentially manageable. The Environment Protection Authority NSW (EPA NSW) noise regulations, monitoring and reporting are, by comparison, diffuse:
The intrusiveness noise level protects the community from intrusive noise by limiting the extent to which a noise source can exceed the background level (that is, background plus 5 decibels [dB]) above a minimum threshold. Ref.4.
Playing With Decibels
Professor David McAlpine, Academic Director, Hearing, and Professor of Hearing, Language and the Brain, Macquarie University in Sydney, wants us, and especially younger people, to listen to what he has to say about the risks and consequences of irreversible lifelong damage to hearing. His key point is that while there are hearing at work protection regulations for paid workers in bars, concerts, restaurants, pubs, and clubs in Australia, there are no hearing at play regulations for customers and bystanders in those exact same places. "You're able to deafen and damage the hearing of your clientele, but you can't damage the hearing of your staff," he says. Ref.5.
However, even on construction sites in Australia, noise and hearing protection regulations are not as closely monitored or enforced as they should be. Contractors and subcontractors on building sites are often not fully informed of the short and long term consequences of not wearing protection. The economic impact of hearing loss is significant in terms of lower productivity due to misunderstandings and confusion in communications in the workplace. Hearing difficulties in the home can become sources of discomfort, frustration and aggravation.
The physiological effects of continued exposure to unhealthily high sound levels can be devastating, as can the psychological effects of social isolation and loss of self-confidence and self-esteem. "We now see that people in midlife, of working age, are the big demographic that now have hearing problems. It's progressive, it's accumulative, and it's irreversible,” Professor McAlpine says.
Professor McAlpine, Hearing, Language, and the Brain, Macquarie University, wants to see the same hearing at work protection regulations being applied to hearing at play to prevent permanent hearing damage and loss, from exposure to excessive sound levels.
"There's a general lack of understanding about what constitutes hearing loss: people don't know what hearing ability is 'normal,' they don't know what level of noise is dangerous, and they are unaware of their own noise exposure over time,” Professor McAlpine says.
Industrial deafness claims are becoming targets for lawyers in Australia as the population ages and the longer term effects of hearing damage become more pronounced. It is only a matter of time before the awareness of hearing loss at work and at play increases in younger generations, leading to litigation and the pursuit of compensation from entertainment and hospitality companies and other organisations, including schools.
The proliferation of Bluetooth sound devices ranging from earbuds and headphones to powerful portable compact speakers makes hazards to hearing health hazard even more pervasive.
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
At a book week parade in the playground of a primary school on Sydney’s lower north shore last year, the amplified accompaniment of recorded music ranged from 80 dB and 90dB, peaking at 105dB on the NIOSH app against a normal background level of 45dB - 55dB before the parade. In the open air, this sound was unlikely to endanger the hearing of children or adults but this was more by accident than design. Later there was a concert in the school hall where recorded music was played at comparably high levels but in an enclosed environment the effects of high sound levels are greatly increased.
At a children’s school holiday craft and music show in the Sydney Opera House Studio in 2023 the producers lowered the sound level from 90 dB to below 80 dB after being shown the sound levels on the NIOSH app by me.
Other hearing health-factors requiring attention in educational settings and policy development go beyond the management of the sound levels for safe listening. The quality of the sound system, its maintenance, and the competence of the operators, including knowledge and training in safe sound levels, need to be factored in. The comfort, expectations, pleasure and satisfaction of audiences must also be considered in the training and performances of public school bands, orchestras and choirs.
Duty Of Care
Last year at an outdoor concert presented by a children’s dance studio as part of a local government council’s annual community festival the peak sound level 15 metres from the stage and speakers was 110 dB! . A stack of huge speakers more suited to a football stadium bookended the stage and a bank of speakers at the front of the stage dwarfed the primary school children performing.
Primary school age children lounging on the parkland lawn in front of the stage put their fingers in their ears when the concert started. The children on the stage were performing their dance routines within centimetres of the speakers. I showed the excessively high decibel level readings to the event’s contractor producer. She referred me to one of the local government’s councillors who was in the audience.
The councillor said the council was not responsible for the presentation or performance. The dance studio producer supervising the children performing said she had no control over the sound equipment and suggested talking to the staging crew controlling the sound desk. I took up her suggestion and showed the decibel readings to the panel operator setting the sound levels on the audio desk.
The panel operator said I would need to talk to his boss who would be back shortly. When he returned he showed no interest in the decibel reading or my opinion. The panel operator, who had the decibel levels displayed on his console, ultimately reduced the volume slightly as a matter of conscience without consulting his boss. It is common knowledge that sound operators, who like to refer to themselves as sound engineers in the manner of the deejay at the pub, have permanent hearing damage and disregard safe listening practices with regard to themselves, performers and audiences.
SOUND QUESTIONS
Is it the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or the NSW Department of Education and/or the NSW Department of Health that is responsible for regulating sound levels for safe listening in schools to protect the hearing health of teachers and students from the hazardous effects of recorded and live music amplified excessively through public address systems and speakers at indoor and outdoor events?
Do local government councils assign occupational and health safety officers to outdoor concerts? Do the responsibilities of these officers include monitoring and enforcing sound level regulations for safe listening to protect hearing health, especially the hearing of children who have no control over their exposure to dangerously high decibel levels?
Are commercial dance and singing studios for children regulated or self-regulated for safe listening practices to protect hearing health in teaching and rehearsal sessions and performance events?
Education in the management of sound levels for hearing safety is highly relevant to individuals, groups, and organisations. Human resources managers, occupational health and safety officers, trade unionists, doctors, and lawyers, have legislation, regulations, processes, procedures, training and preventive safety equipment they can enforce and apply to hearing at work.
In educational, entertainment, hospitality, recreational and other hearing at play settings, the lack of policy, information, training, regulation and coordination between sound industry services and operators, and between different levels of government and authorities, is problematic.
There is a need for comprehensive and consistent government regulations and hearing education programs on maximum sound levels so they can be applied, measured and enforced in hearing at play settings for lifelong hearing safety and health, starting with children.
Hearing Noise Complaints
Long before the conversation between the deejay and me on the footpath across the road from the pub in September 2023, I complained to the pub's night manager and to government authorities. My initial complaints in phone calls to the pub were answered politely by the duty manager and just as politely ignored. When I started making personal appearances at the pub when the karaoke machine disturbed the peace the manager and security guards greeted with similar condescension and disinterest.
I phoned and wrote to the EPA NSW and was referred to Liquor and Gaming NSW, which referred me to the Local Government Council, which referred me to the Liquor Licensing Officer at the local police station. A veritable merry go round giving the silent treatment to my entirely reasonable requests for something to be done to reduce the extremely disturbing and dangerously high sound levels.
While Council can take action under the POEO Act as the ARA, councils should refer complaints/concerns to the Department of Customer Service (Liquor and Gaming NSW) in the first instance to ensure any regulatory action is coordinated.
See section 2.3 of this guide for advice on assessing and managing noise from music venues.
If conditions in the development consent relating to noise have been breached, council could take action under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. See also provisions relating to special entertainment precincts under section 3.4.1 of this guide. Ref. 6.
Measured Approach
I recorded the decibel levels of the karaoke machine at different times and distances from the pub, starting across the road and radiating out to around 300 metres where the noise was still annoying but less disturbing. I wrote a detailed report incorporating the NIOSH decibel level measurements with links to videos and photos recorded concurrently. I submitted my report to the EPA NSW, Liquor and Gaming NSW, the Liquor Licensing Officer at the Local Council Environmental Services Officer. There was no acknowledgement from the police and only a pro forma email receipt from the council.
This year the pub has made its karaoke sessions fortnightly on Friday nights instead of every Friday and Saturday night and public holidays. The decibel level has been reduced significantly. Another factor besides my complaints was objections by the neighbouring cinema where the noise from the pub’s karaoke machine was reverberating through its walls during screenings. The pub has added more variety to its entertainment program with live local bands and cover shows. Nevertheless my NIOSH app remains ready.
References
1. New Scientist magazine Blast from the past 19 February 2000.
2. p.vii World Health Organization WHO Global standard for safe listening venues & events 2022.
3. p.4 World Health Organization WHO Global standard for safe listening venues & events 2022.
4. EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) NSW – A guide to the Noise Policy for Industry 2017.
5. Macquarie University, The Lighthouse – Shouting to be heard: How noisy, everyday places harm our hearing 2020.
6. NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) – Noise Guide for Local Government 2023.