Here’s a great article from CBC about the effects of noise at sporting events:
Spectators at pro sports games like the Super Bowl need to protect their ears while enjoying the action, Canadian experts say.
When the home team scores during a NHL playoff game, the noise in the stands can be as loud as a plane taking off.
“Each time your ears have been ringing, that is evidence of hearing loss. There’s no recovery mechanism in place for the death of those inner ear cells,” said Dr. Tim Rindlisbacher, director of sports health at Cleveland Clinic in Toronto, where he also works with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts and Mississauga SteeIheads of the Ontario Hockey League.
Prof. Bill Hodgetts of the department of speech pathology and audiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton published a study in 2006 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, titled Can Hockey Playoffs Harm Your Hearing? to raise awareness about noise when people are enjoying themselves at a game.
The noise of an entire NHL playoff game was equivalent to sitting next to a chainsaw for three hours, said Hodgetts, who is also with the the university’s Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine. When the home team scored, temporarily the noise was like a plane taking off.
Read the full article here: