We recently had a great family gathering to celebrate a marriage and thankfully the rain storms of the previous week abated and we enjoyed fine weather for the massive picnic in the park that followed.

For example, we didn’t have a computer or a calculator, our television was one of those bulky 5-sized suitcase type that was locked in a cupboard with viewing time limited, maybe 2 hours weekly, to perhaps a film or sporting event, which would be a rugby international.

There was a Dansette for school dances with a willing volunteer teacher to change scratchy vinyl records and nudge it when it became stuck in a groove. Now as you read on I can feel your tears welling up and even the possibility of the words of a song leaking from your lips ….

Oh, happy days! Wait a minute - I haven’t mentioned a worrying decibel yet; now I think back to my school days and think of the things that probably have had some adverse effect on my hearing, as well as many others, pupils and staff alike:

• Handbell
• Loud music
• Bands
• The alarm
• Orchestras
• Referees whistle
• Brakes on the buses
• School canteen cutlery
• Aluminium framed windows
• Screaming in the playground

Well, there weren’t many of us, but we could raise the crescendo to uncomfortable levels… if we needed to. The musicians played by strumming power and invariably limited lung content. A speaker was the person who talked at the audience, slightly different from today’s meanings:

a) A teacher (how could I say that!)
b) An object that produces noise, (pupil? – no!)

Usually, with controls, to enhance volume, (yes, another definition of a teacher!) Now, let us introduce the Music Department, give them the use of the stage, show them the lighting rig, and allow them to dress in anything other than school uniform, give them a lecture on keeping the place tidy and show them the controls on the amplifier and where the leads and microphones should be stowed after use A microphone was something used only as an input device for a reel-to-reel tape recorder or built in on one of those cassette recorders (remember those?)

OK, it was the sixties and yes, the big pop groups of the time had amplification but nothing like the quality and size of today…. haven’t times changed? Suffice to say, with all these devices, uncontrolled and unmanaged amplified noises have got louder and together with improved technology it is so tempting to establish the pain threshold of hearing. It is of course worth bearing in mind that the Sound Controller will be changing everyone’s hearing threshold so this means more volume please as the session continues…. just like Mr “Di Disco” at the private function that you went to last week! In the interest of enhancing their performing art, each pupil tries in turn to raise the roof tiles, make the school clock vibrate on the wall and establish which frequencies make the fluorescent tubes flicker or fall out.

Hang on, we are apportioning blame on the pupils, this might not be fair; could it be that the Music Teachers have now joined in to demonstrate their expertise?

By now, we have got baby Martians awakened, their parents leaping around in a form of Mars tribal dance searching the internet for the latest noise measuring devices! How have I got this far will only a brief mention of the decibel?

The decibel is an aggressive menace to today’s society in the workplace, school, leisure, home and even on your pushbike. To name a few of the areas where decibels are featured in legislation: Physical Agents Directive (previously Noise at Work Regulations), Anti Social Behaviour Orders and even on your Walkman/iPod and lawnmower. The decibel is that aggressive that if you add 3 more decibels to his original size, whether 60 or 100, he has doubled in volume. Give him another 3 and he has doubled again! The detrimental effect to us earthly humans, educationalists and pupils included, is that we can only take so much of this without causing often irreversible damage to our hearing organs.

Tinnitus (ringing in the ears), is often caused by loud noise and can remain permanently along with depreciating hearing, for life! Most people experience depreciation in hearing ability with increasing age but augmenting this natural depreciation with noise is only adding to the world of silence. Today we have the ability to minimize the hearing depreciation risks but in my mind, without spoiling anyone’s fun or activity, is to simply keep the volume down!

Gerald C R Marsden,
Hearing ReSolutions
11 St Ethelberts Ave,
Bolton BL3 5RH
Tel 01204 655530
www.hearing-protection.co.uk