Category: Sound Warriors

Ignite the Floor: Join our Dance Challenge Today

Post author By A & G Campbell
Post date 15 March 2024

Redefining the boundaries of dance

Imagine a world where young dancers can pursue their passion without risking their hearing health. Help us to make this a reality by raising awareness of noise-induced hearing loss in young dancers.

Join our Dance Challenge today and create a revolutionary dance experience that transcends the reliance on loud music.

Where movement becomes poetry

Through expressive movements and emotive storytelling, create a unique and mesmerizing journey without the need for booming soundtracks. Use innovative choreography with your bodies as instruments, intricate rhythms and a fusion of silence and redefine the boundaries of dance, where silence speaks volumes and movement becomes poetry.

Showcase your skills

Whether you’re dancing alone, or performing a routine with friends, don’t keep your dance moves to yourself, email your video today to Hi@SoundWarriors.org and let the world dance to your rhythm!

Want to know more?

Dive into our website. It’s your one-stop destination for all things related to protecting your precious hearing. From informative articles to engaging blog posts, we’ve curated a wealth of knowledge to help you understand the risks and prevention methods. Our platform isn’t just about awareness; it’s about empowering you to make informed decisions about your auditory health. So, if you’re ready to safeguard your hearing for a lifetime of music and dance, explore our website today and embark on a journey to sound health!

Photos

Male Dancer by Andre Hunter on Unsplash
Female Dancers by Levi Guzman on Unsplash
Dance Performance Ilja Tulit on Unsplash

Tags Dance, Disco, noise-induced hearing loss, parents, teacher, youth

Competitions Dance In the Community Sound Warriors Videos

Dance Smart and Love your Ears

Post author By A & G Campbell
Post date 1 February 2024

Feel the vibe!

Young people love the sense of excitement that loud music brings. It helps them to escape from the day-to-day world and transcend to new shared experiences, but listening to loud music over a prolonged period can have a damaging effect on our ears. The World Health Organisation has estimated that 50% of all our 12-35-year-olds will have hearing loss by the time they are 50. Read on to find out how Sound Warriors can help you ensure that your child dosen’t become another WHO statistic.

LoH and loud music

Inspired by Dr Ava Hunt Associate Professor of Applied Theatre at Derby University, the young performers of Derby Youth Theatre wanted to tell their friends about the dangers of loud music so they created the character LoH.

LoH’s name stands for Loss of Hearing, and he is doing his best to make sure that the volume is as loud as it can be. LoH hides in plain sight so that people forget he is around, but he is everywhere, at the disco, dance class, gym, cinema, and sports events. He even conceals himself in computer games.

Watch LoH in action on the Derby Theatre Page of our website.

Knowledge is power

The great news is that although noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, it’s entirely preventable. Can you help us to spread awareness about ear empowerment? Here are some ideas for you to start a conversation with a young person to stop LoH before he can do any harm.

Talk about hearing and how different sounds can change your mood – the sea, birdsong, a pneumatic drill, a computer game, a rock band. How do loud sounds make you feel?
Try this riddle “What things you can hear but can’t see?
Try to communicate without voice for a few minutes. How does it make you feel?
Imagine Loh getting up to mischief. Where does he like to hang out? What does he do to make it uncomfortable for others? How can you banish LoH from your life?
There are lots more ideas on the activities pages of our website

Love your Ears

Here are some practical measures that you can take to protect your hearing and love your ears.

Follow the 60/60 rule – turn the volume to no more than 60%. Take a break after 60 minutes.
Wear earplugs in noisy environments. There are lots on the market but we especially like the ones created by Loop Earplugs because we think the vibrant colours will appeal to young people.
Use a free app such as dB X from SkyPaw or the innovative Sound Print to measure sound levels
Talk to your GP if you have ringing in the ears that doesn’t go away after a few days

Want to know more?

Here is a flavour of some of the other BLOGs on our website

How Loud is Too Loud for Kids

How Hearing works

A London Street

Hearing Protection

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Answer to riddle – “What things can you hear, but can’t see” The wind, a phone ringing, thunder. What else can you think of?

Images from Derby Youth Theatre Other artwork created on Canva.com

Disco cover photo by Photo by Jesus Loves Austin on Unsplash

Tags ava hunt, Dance, Disco, hearing, LoH, noise-induced hearing loss, parents, teachers, well-being, WHO, World Health Organisation, youth

In the Community Sound Warriors

Hearing Protection

Post author By A & G Campbell
Post date 1 February 2024

What sort of Hearing Protection do I need?

There are so many different types of hearing protection on the market, but which is best for me?

Headphones Photo – by Kopfhörer Events Deutschland on Unsplash

Other artwork created on canva.com

Hearing Ambassadors Sound Warriors

How loud is too loud for kids?

Post author By A & G Campbell
Post date 22 July 2023

katie-gerrard-sSHzsuYBc9U-unsplash

How loud? How long?

Unwanted noise is one of the most common environmental problems that is experienced by almost everyone daily. Throughout human history, noise has been recognized as a nuisance and, in some cases, an environmental hazard. To answer the question “How loud is too loud for kids”, we will start by looking at the regulations.

In Britain, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has clear guidelines for safe sound levels in the workplace. Sound is measured in Decibels and the guidance states that if employees are exposed to 85 Decibels (or more) on average every working day, they are regarded as being at risk of what is known as noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). The HSE state that all employees in this situation must be offered hearing protection.

That’s just the starting point. Now we need to know if 85 Decibels is a safe listening level for kids. Unfortunately, this is a bit more difficult than it sounds because the only regulations that we have are for adults in the workplace. There are no regulations for the young ears of growing children. To answer our question, we must delve a little deeper. The guidance comes in two parts, loudness (decibels or dbA) and duration.

Duration is easy to measure, but how loud is 85 Decibels? Well, it is about the noise level of a domestic food mixer. If 85 Decibels is safe for adults, you might have thought that a few Decibels here or there wouldn’t make much of a difference. That is where you would be wrong. For every 3 Decibels increase in sound, safe listening time halves. In other words, if the noise increases from 85 to 88 Decibels (the sound of a hair dryer), the safe daily exposure reduces to 4 hours. You can see the effects of loudness and duration on our Decibel Chart

So far, so good.

To test the amount of noise pollution that people might be exposed to on a normal day, we decided to measure sound levels on a typical commuter journey. We chose London, but our experiment could have taken place in any town or city. We used a free smartphone app to measure the sounds that we encountered.

Amazingly, we recorded levels of up to 97 Decibels on our 30-minute walk to the station. This is 8 times louder than the 85 Decibels, HSE workplace guideline. Our train journey also peaked at 97 Decibels. In fact, by the time that we had arrived at our destination, we had used up all our daily safe exposure time and we still had a full working day ahead of us as well as the reverse journey home. No wonder more and more people are noticing they have hearing loss!

Workplace versus Recreational noise

Noise is noise. You can’t distinguish between workplace noise, environmental noise, and recreational noise.

It is an indisputable fact that prolonged exposure to loud noise has the potential to cause permanent irreversible damage to our hearing. Take a typical concert or gig where noise levels are 110-120 Decibels. If you are not wearing suitable hearing protection, safe listening time is just a matter of seconds.

Hearing Ambassadors believe that to gain the maximum benefit for lifelong good listening, people should start when they are young. That’s why we set up our Sound Warriors project.

In our quest to discover safe listening levels for kids, we found a fascinating article published by the World Health Organisation in 2018. They reviewed all the available studies at that time and although it is a bit technical, it is incredibly helpful.

Recommendation

In the above article, The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that the best way of protecting under 18s would be to adopt not 85 but a 75 Decibel limit, some 8 times quieter than the adult limit. They are concerned that recreational noise is much more difficult to control than occupational noise because social pressures result in young adults actively seeking out recreational environments or activities that have hazardous levels of noise such as bars, discos, gyms, sporting events, personal listening devices and gaming machines.

Things you can do

Grown-ups need to understand what is at stake here because children do not have the autonomy to make health decisions and young adults are likely to engage in behaviour that increases their exposure to high levels of noise.

It is not all doom and gloom, because although its irreversible, noise-induced hearing loss is entirely preventable. Here are several practical ideas from the WHO which will reduce a child’s exposure to recreational noise.

Use noise-reducing or noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds when using personal listening devices.
Limit participation in sporting events, concerts, and other activities where noise levels are likely to be excessively high and wear hearing protection regardless of the duration of exposure.
Utilize smart devices to measure noise exposure of venues and activities to determine if noise exceeds 80 dBA, and adjust behaviours and exposure as necessary.

If you would like to know more about safe listening for children and young people, please email us via our contact form

In this article, we used the following images from Unsplash.com

Girl with headphones – katie-gerrard-sSHzsuYBc9U-unsplash

Watch – luke-chesser-rCOWMC8qf8A-unsplash.jpg

London Street – abi-ismail-fzpsFoatUUo-unsplash

Tags children, Decibel, HSE, kids, parents, WHO

In the Community Sound Warriors

Derby Youth Theatre Sound Warriors

Post author By TT
Post date 17 April 2023

Coming Soon…

These fabulous Sound Warriors are members of Derby Youth Theatre. They have just finished recording a series of three short movies that they created with the help of Derby University MA Students Becca and Daisy and their course tutor Dr Ava Hunt.

Sound Warriors Videos

How Hearing Works

Post author By TT
Post date 20 August 2022

After a long break, we’ve made another video! This one is about how your hearing works. Have you ever seen inside an ear before?

Tags how hearing works, inner ear, middle ear

Sound Warriors Videos

Interview with Sound Warrior Jess

Post author By TT
Post date 30 September 2021

You will recognise Jess from our video, ‘Meet the Sound Warriors!’ which you can see on our Video Wall. Here she is explaining in this interview a bit about being a Sound Warrior and her part in the video.