The "this is such an annoying alert; it tells me I do something unhealthy every time I do something unhealthy" comments are an interesting read.
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Apple Hearing Study Suggests An Estimated 1 in 3 Americans Are Regularly Exposed to Excessive Noise
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Did they expect anything different?
Being in the US currently as a visitor from Europe, the amount of noise is insane: there seem to be no restrictions on the amount of noise cars can make and apparently many truck drivers quite enjoy taking the muffler out or straight piping their vehicle. Trains incessantly honk even if there is nothing blocking the track, sirens on emergency vehicles are deafening… not to mention even preflight announcements on airplanes seem configured to overpower cams or earphones.
EU cars are quiet, trains do not use their horn all the time and sirens are ‘loud enough’ .
The US are nice but the propensity for noise indeed really stands out…
Being in the US currently as a visitor from Europe, the amount of noise is insane: there seem to be no restrictions on the amount of noise cars can make and apparently many truck drivers quite enjoy taking the muffler out or straight piping their vehicle. Trains incessantly honk even if there is nothing blocking the track, sirens on emergency vehicles are deafening… not to mention even preflight announcements on airplanes seem configured to overpower cams or earphones.
EU cars are quiet, trains do not use their horn all the time and sirens are ‘loud enough’ .
The US are nice but the propensity for noise indeed really stands out…
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I’ve wondered about this and from what little I’ve looked into it, counterintuitively it doesn’t seem that that’s actually protecting your hearing.
It seems like it should but they’re not actually for hearing protection. Apple certainly wouldn’t tell you they’re protecting your hearing.
If your ears aren’t actually hurting and the AirPods are physically blocking some noise it seems like it should work, but they aren’t actually ear plugs and the ANC isn’t actually silence.
Sure, because hand dryers somehow make a special kind of ear-splitting noise which won't harm your ears...
Ah, another "special" loud noise that makes the air vibrate in magical harmless ways.
What? The loud noise detector is triggered by a loud noise? Say it ain't so!!! A forklift driver stacking metal plates would probably wear ear defenders, but regular exposure to similar noise in a gym doesn't count...?
Not the same thing. If your watch detects a loud noise then that's almost certainly because you've been exposed to a loud noise, and monitoring noise exposure is the whole point. Crash detection jumps to the unfounded conclusion that a sudden jolt means you've been in a road accident and it's time to pester the emergency services (and probably only appears to save lives because of confirmation bias and conflation with the satellite SOS feature).
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I suspect the other elephant in the room is air travel - if you've ever been on a plane with a cold or something that stops you clearing your ears when the pressure changes, you'll know the feeling, and if something is that uncomfortable and leaves you semi-deaf for an hour afterwards it probably ain't doing your ears any good. Unfortunately "Sorry, I've got a touch of man flu and can't get on the plane" doesn't get taken seriously as an excuse. Not to mention a few hours next to screaming snotty-nosed kids (who probably have a good excuse for screaming if their noses are blocked...)
I get warnings cutting the grass, edging, trimming...I wish I could tell my watch I'm wearing hearing protection. Same with power tools, I have on ear muffs that cut the sound to a safe level but my watch does not know that. Maybe it could ask, I detect loud noise, are you wearing hearing protection. It could make a note of that.
Blast some nature sounds. It was the only solution for my old neighbors. I put up with it for about a week before blasting Lion roars at high volume.
Never heard them do that again. Pretty sure they got divorced. Would recommend 11/10.
Definitely in this list lmao
Had to start wearing earplugs when getting our infant to sleep because she cries when trying to fight a nap. Plus the sound machine on white noise to try and get her to fall asleep definitely has got my tinnitus acting up
Had to start wearing earplugs when getting our infant to sleep because she cries when trying to fight a nap. Plus the sound machine on white noise to try and get her to fall asleep definitely has got my tinnitus acting up
I have terrible tinnitus from chronic ear trauma (heavy machinery, loud race cars & motorcycles, gunfire, working around aircraft, etc).
Please make taking care of your ears a priority. I manage to deal with it, and sometimes it's very difficult. I'm not so much hard of hearing as my ears ring constantly, and there's nothing medical science can do for it.
I would wish to be deaf if I didn't love music. There's days I would jam an ice pick into my ears to stop this ringing if I could, and just deal with the bloody aftermath.
I also need to be able to hear to do my job, and I kinda need my job. At least for the next 3 years.....
Please make taking care of your ears a priority. I manage to deal with it, and sometimes it's very difficult. I'm not so much hard of hearing as my ears ring constantly, and there's nothing medical science can do for it.
I would wish to be deaf if I didn't love music. There's days I would jam an ice pick into my ears to stop this ringing if I could, and just deal with the bloody aftermath.
I also need to be able to hear to do my job, and I kinda need my job. At least for the next 3 years.....
Hearing loss is part of life. I have it from my job. I think things like a warning that your lawn mower is too loud is awesome and a great example of the value of this feature. But something like a crying baby, you’re not going to wear ear plugs for.
I stopped participating in this study bc every run I go on I get a warning when I run into the wind! At least 2 warnings a run.
Why would it do that? Washing your hands doesn’t temporarily inoculate your ears.
(Also, hand dryers are a brilliant way of spreading germs. Avoid.)
Because they don’t want a notification for an unavoidable (at least for them) loud part of life. Everyone understands noise is noise, there just seems to be a major difference in opinion on what some deem a part of life and others think should be avoided seemingly at all costs.
One day hopefully not too far from now we will likely be able to regenerate hearing. Non-mamal animals like birds and crocodiles can do it.
"SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO REGENERATE LOST HEARING
THEY CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND THE "HOLY GRAIL" OF THE HEARING LOSS FIELD."
Scientists May Have Figured Out How to Regenerate Lost Hearing
A team of Harvard Medical School scientists has come up with a new drug-like cocktail of molecules that can successfully regenerate hair cells.
futurism.com
But are you saying it was unavoidable in your case? Could awareness and protection have helped? 🤔
Well nice to see they are using the Noise App for market research
An estimated 1 in 3 Americans are exposed to harmful levels of noise on a regular basis, based on data gathered as part of the Apple Hearing Study. In recognition of International Noise Awareness Day, University of Michigan researchers working on the hearing study in partnership with Apple shared a blog post noise exposure.
Extrapolating data collected from 130,000 Apple Hearing Study volunteers who contributed readings from their Apple Watch between November 2019 and December 2022, the University of Michigan estimated that 77 million adults across the United States are consistently exposed to high noise levels.
According to the World Health Organization and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, an annual average noise exposure level of 70 decibels (dBA) poses no risk for hearing loss, but exposure over 70 dBA can result in damage to hearing.
The study assumes that people with repeated daily average noise exposures over 70 dBA likely have an annual noise exposure over 70 dBA, which researchers say can result in hearing issues, irritation, heart problems, and sleep disturbances, in addition to impacting mental health. Higher noise levels for longer time periods can increase risk.
The Apple Watch has a built-in feature for detecting environmental sound level, and it collects data to tabulate an average daily environmental sound exposure level. The information collected by the watch can be located in the Hearing section of the Health app.
The Health app will let you know if your noise exposure levels are below 75 dB on average and are "OK," or if you have been repeatedly exposed to higher levels of sound that can impact your health. At 80 dB, 40 hours of exposure over seven days could potentially result in damage, but at 120 dB, 14 seconds over seven days could cause problems. The Apple Watch is able to send an alert when it detects a harmful noise level so you can move to a quieter location.
People in Puerto Rico, Delaware, Rhode Island, Mississippi, and Connecticut experienced the highest noise pollution levels, and adults aged 35 to 44 were more likely to be exposed to high noise levels compared to those in other age groups.
Additional details about the study can be found in the full blog post on the University of Michigan website. To cut down on hearing damage, researchers recommend that those regularly exposed to excessive noise pollution move away from noisy areas and take "quiet breaks," buy quiet appliances, and wear ear muffs and ear plugs when possible.
Article Link: Apple Hearing Study Suggests An Estimated 1 in 3 Americans Are Regularly Exposed to Excessive Noise
Apple Health could easily encourage users to wear earplugs if they offered a way to indicate that one is wearing them. For example, I wear custom-fit musician plugs with 25dB attenuation when I go to concerts. But Apple Health records my exposure as around 98dB for 3 hours, when in reality my exposure is more around 73dB. I mean, it's great that Apple is letting its customers know when it is exposed to noise, but Apple sort of assumes customers are not wearing any hearing protection, nor do they offer any sort of encouragement to do so.
Perhaps they rode a bike in a windy city like amsterdam: every time my watch warns me about noise levels. 🤦🏻♂️
I think that may be the point of all of this. If you are being exposed to 30-60 and the levels are above 120 db then you are well above the 14 second threshold and more than 7 times a week.
This suggests that many people are having their hearing damaged and causing other issues including heart problems through this exposure without knowing it.
I wonder if the AirPod Pro noise canceling could mitigate this problem while providing a more accurate exposure reading?