Withstanding a dangerous level of noise in the big city is oftentimes a risk you have to take if you want to stay in the big city. The average metropolite is no stranger to noise pollution, whether it be painfully ear-piercing or simply obnoxious, if bearable. The amount of potentially hazardous noise one is exposed to in a city like New York, Chicago, or Boston is quite large, and with the everyday hustle and bustle in urban life, loud noise is as unavoidable as it is expected. It seems that in New York City, for instance, the bulk of the noise pollution one is forced to withstand comes from mass transit. According to a recent survey by U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, just under 1.9 million (55%) of New Yorkers took public transportation in 2005. This means that at least once a day, more than half of these city dwellers may be exposed to about 90dB of sound waiting for the train or bus that will take them to work, to class, to lunch with friends, or home at 4am. Those that take mass transit everyday are well aware that the oncoming train is extremely loud, yet many do not understand that there is a definite and assured potential for hearing damage in the big city.

There are a few common misconceptions about how susceptible we are to hearing loss. We experience pain at about 120dB (ambulance siren, jet plane take-off) to 140dB SPL (firearms, jet engine), which is a level much higher than can cause irreparable damage to your hearing. The threshold for damage cause by sound is 85dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level) or higher for an 8hr period. What’s more, there is no law that protects the general public from hazardous sound levels, save for in the workplace. However, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) as well as ANSI (American National Standards Institute) have set standards for the amount of time one is exposed to certain noise levels. Naturally, the louder the sound is, the shorter the safe daily exposure time. So for those who are subject to the daily subway commute via New York City’s MTA transit system, or any mass transit system, continued exposure to dangerous levels of noise is inevitable. Nevertheless, there are those who are unfortunately ignorant of the fact that these levels of noise are potentially harmful to hearing and unknowingly suffer the consequences much later. Research has shown that aging is not the main culprit of hearing loss, but is in fact high amounts of loud sounds over an extended period of time if over 85dB. Most people would not willingly choose to put themselves in any situation that they know could be damaging to their health. Still quite a large amount of people frequent nightclubs and rock concerts, listen to music on MP3 players at full blast (iPods can reach over 115dB), and work jobs that use loud tools, notwithstanding the potential for hearing loss.

Those that have unfortunately suffered the ill effects of noise-induced hearing loss don’t necessarily have to subject themselves to seclusion from the world. People with some form of hearing loss have many outlets through which they can be a completely functioning part of society, albeit their slight handicap. Services like Phone Caption allow people with hearing difficulties to communicate with loved ones near and far in a fashion that isn’t disobliging. With Free Captioning, users can call their friends and relatives and, through a specially trained Communications Assistant, receive spoken word in the form of text that appears on the screen of their phone or computer. Phone Caption is a free service and available for anyone and benefits people with all forms of hearing loss. This service is not only revolutionary; it simplifies and facilitates direct communication, displaying the readable caption in near real time. In a world where noise pollution poses a real threat and is not regulated, Phone Caption provides a viable form of communication- making life that much easier. For the millions of individuals who are already hard of hearing, Phone Caption proves to be a generous and invaluable service. So, while exposure to noisy subways, trains, busses, sirens, or planes is inevitable, suffering as a result of contact with these means of transportation certainly is not.