Re: “ ‘Say no to Blue Angels,’ new billboard says in Seattle” (July 23, Native Information):
As a retired doctor who practiced occupational medication for a few years, a good portion of my profession has targeted on listening to conservation and stopping listening to loss within the office.
My spouse and I stay straight underneath the flight path for Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport. I can confidently say that the noise from emergency autos, plane and even racing automobiles can attain ranges the place listening to safety needs to be thought of.
That stated, the noise produced by the Blue Angels is in a class of its personal. When the jets move over our residence, the complete construction shakes, dishes rattle and our cat bolts to her “protected place” underneath the mattress. Fortuitously, we haven’t skilled property harm, however the disruption is actual.
I don’t imagine the transient publicity to those flyovers will trigger everlasting listening to harm in most wholesome people. Nevertheless, for older adults or anybody with preexisting listening to loss, the danger could also be extra vital.
I’d urge public officers, occasion organizers and residents alike to contemplate the potential well being impacts of sustained or repeated publicity to high-decibel noise. Even short-term occasions can have cumulative results — particularly in communities already experiencing elevated ambient noise from air visitors.
Wealthy Sagall, M.D., Seattle
