Free Press photo by Pat Christman
Minnesota State University students (from left) Juli Smith, Allison McMichael and Whitney Page test the volume of a toy at Target. They are students of Renee Shellum, who took the class to Target to measure the loudness of today's hottest Christmas toys.
In a quiet corner of Target one recent Thursday — the men’s underwear corner to be exact — a group of twenty-somethings and their instructor gathered to carry out a little higher education.
With three carts full of toys, it was time to see which plaything was capable of launching the loudest assault on a child’s ears.
So, with a handheld decibel meter in hand, the troupe does what it came here to do: mimic the work of the Sight and Hearing Association, which each year tests the hottest new toys to see how much damage they can do to a kid’s ear drums. When they find something that can tip the 100-decibel mark, they let the world know.
This year’s major offenders, by the way, according to the Sight and Hearing Association, are the Bell Sports Riderz Block Blaster with an ear-crushing decibel reading of 129.2 and the Pixar Cars Shake ’N Go, which screamed in at 119.5.
Locally, the students found that the Transformers Optimus Prime Cyber Sword registered 110 decibels. And a handful of other toys — including a radiantly chipper Dora the Explorer, the WWE Belt, V-Tek’s My First Laptop and a bizarre doll that crouches and squats in her crib telling you to do things and get her stuff — all clocked in at 90 decibels or above.
For comparison: A normal stadium football game would register at 115 decibels, a rock concert would register at 120, and at 140 decibels, physical pain can occur.
“Parents sometimes don’t think an innocent toy like that can cause damage,” said Renee Shellum, an associate professor in the Minnesota State Mankato's Department of Speech, Hearing and Rehabilitation Services. “But at 119 decibels, it can cause damage immediately.”
“Noise and hearing loss is one of the most preventable things,” Shellum said. “And hearing gets pushed to the side, and I just think there needs to be more awareness.”
Misty McColley, who just graduated, was among the students who hunted down the toys in the toy department and helped check their decibel levels. She said the trip gave her practical knowledge so that when she enters the work force after graduate school, she’ll be able to tap that experience to pass along useful information that could protect a child’s hearing.
“I thought it was a really good experience,” she said. “I would recommend more opportunities where you can actually go out into the field and do testing.”
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 5.2 million children between the ages of 6 and 19 have some degree of noise-induced hearing loss in at least one ear.
The NCHS says that at levels of 80 decibels, sound starts to be harmful. At 90, the sound is about twice as loud but 10 times more intense. At 100 the sound is 100 times more intense than 80.
For the complete Free Press story, click on http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x1613332340/Exercise-exposes-loud-toys.
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