Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Noise and Toys

This morning on the news I saw this article: http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=145045
An excerpt:

So we took a decibel meter to the Wilcox toybox to see how loud these toys really are.

Her piano pegged the meter at 90+ decibels. The Sesame Street gang, also pegged at 90+. A Leapfrog pad registered at 86, but other tests have some to exceed 100 decibels.

That means these toys register somewhere along the noise level of a vacuum cleaner, a rock concert and a power drill.

The article says that some children's toys exceed 80 decibels (that's the threshold for causing hearing loss). Almost 15% of children show signs of sound-induced hearing loss. I do wonder if they tested the toys on the loudest volume setting or just the normal one. It makes me want to get a decibel meter to see how loud my daughter's toys are. My husband is hoping some of the more annoying toys are too loud, so he can have an excuse to dump them.

The article also states that it takes multiple, long exposure to the sounds to cause hearing loss. This offers litte comfort since what does a two-year-old do? Listen to the same thing over and over every day.


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