Dr. Julie Norin, audiologist and assistant clinical professor at Towson University, joins the show to share essential hearing health tips for spring. Learn how everyday activities—concerts, yard work, sporting events, and wearable tech—can affect your hearing, what safe noise levels are, and practical ways to protect your ears (including custom musician plugs, high‑NRR earmuffs, and infant-sized protection).
Dr. Norin also discusses how consumer devices like AirPods and hearing‑test apps can raise awareness and encourage earlier professional care—but don’t replace a full audiological evaluation.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Dr. Julie Norin. She’s an audiologist. She’s also an assistant clinical professor of audiology with Towson University. Julie, so great to see you.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Thanks for having me. It’s always a pleasure.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And I should say that at Towson, give you a little shout out here, you are training, not only are you a successful audiologist, I mean, you have an extensive career education, but now you’re training the future audiologists of America. How’s that going?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
I’m trying my best. No, they’re great. We have an amazing program at Towson.
And every cohort, we have about 15 to 20 students who are really motivated, driven, bright, enthusiastic, young people who are looking to get into the field of audiology and help individuals with all sorts of hearing and balance related issues. So I love that I get to play a part in their professional development.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And you do a really good job. Is it, just tell me, is it a really attractive field now? Healthcare in general, I would kind of lump this in to healthcare, nurses, doctors, is it an attractive field?
Are you seeing a groundswell of people that are interested in the ear hearing?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
I think so. I think people are drawn to it. Maybe I have a bias, but it seems like people are drawn to it because it combines healthcare and a helping profession, because it is the communication sciences with advancing technology.
And technology, as we know, we look at even just the way our iPhones have changed just in the last several years, it just grows so rapidly. And for people who are really technically inclined and excited by the growth in the technology, but also want to work in a profession where they’re helping people and making a difference in people’s lives, it’s an excellent field.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, you shouldn’t, anyone watching this wants to be an audiologist or explore it, reach out to Towson University. They have an extensive program. All right, Jolie, spring has sprung.
I know you’re in Baltimore, our hometown. I do not live there, but I can tell you it’s been a little bit challenging with the weather. It’s gotten a little cooler.
But are there some tips as spring, we’ve got allergy season, sporting events, the Orioles are not doing too well, but they’re playing, and concerts, things we should be thinking about for our hearing during the spring?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Yeah, absolutely. So warmer weather always brings about increased risk for exposure to lots of hazardous noise levels. So safe noise levels hover around 85 decibels.
So for reference, normal conversational level, it ranges around 60 decibels. So 85 can be pretty loud. It’s equivalent to maybe someone who’s shouting very loudly, very close to your ears.
But safe exposure time is about eight hours. But as soon as that loudness increases by five decibels, for every five decibel increase we get in that loudness, our safe exposure time is cut by half. So once we increase that loudness to 90 decibels, safe exposure time is cut to four hours, 95 decibels cut down to two hours, and so on.
When we look at warmer weather and spring, and we think about all of the things that come with that, such as outdoor activities, power tools, yard work, motorcycles, or recreational vehicles, or attending concerts, all of those experiences come with elevated noise levels. On average, the yard tools that we might see that I mentioned, leaf blower, weed whacker, lawn mower, can hover anywhere between 105 and 120 decibels. So your safe exposure time could be minutes.
Your average concert that you might attend might hover around 110. So again, knowing that most concerts last more than just a few minutes, we’re all at risk. I attend a lot of concerts.
I’m a big concert goer, and I protect my ears by using custom musician plugs. So there are things that we can do to protect our hearing, such as using ear muffs with a very strong high noise reduction rating, or visiting someone like me, an audiologist, and having custom ear plugs made, so that you can protect your hearing and not have to worry about limiting your exposure.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So you probably don’t want to be near the speakers, Julie. I know you’re a big Ravens fan. It’s not football season just yet, although I guess there’s a UFL.
But you probably want to, you know, it’s best not even to be our age. I think we’re both Gen Xers. But even the younger folks need to protect their hearing, right?
I mean, you should really, and stadiums these days, I haven’t been to an Oriole game in a while because they haven’t been that great, and I haven’t been in Baltimore too long. But it’s loud there. These sporting events are not just the fans.
There’s music. There’s, you know, the clapping, all that kind of stuff. So you probably want to protect yourself with those hearing plugs.
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Absolutely. And noise-induced hearing loss can really impact anybody, all ages. So I love when I see families at outings like Ravens games or concerts, and, you know, it kills me when they’re not protecting their children’s hearing.
But there are earmuffs and earplugs that are available for, you know, as young as six months old, infant size. So it’s very easy to protect our hearing just by using protective gear.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And there’s no stigma. I mean, I go to, my wife and I go out sometimes. You see people all the time now with, not everyone, but you see people with, so you can have these things, and there’s no stigma attached, and you can still have a good experience.
So when you go to a concert, Julie, with your custom-made hearing plugs, you can hear the music just fine. You can have a good experience. You can talk to your neighbor, right?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Exactly. Yeah. I’m able to hear the music.
I’m able to have conversations with my friends. I’m able to sing along. And at the end of the night when the concert’s done and I go home and I’m lying in bed and it’s quiet, I’m not hearing that ringing in my ears that is, you know, all too familiar from being out in noisy environments and not protecting my hearing.
So one of the biggest signs that you’ve been exposed and that you’ve maybe created a little bit of damage to your hearing is that ringing that you get after exposure to loud sounds.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I get pain, actually. It feels like a pounding in some way. So it’s not, for me, it’s not ringing.
I remember playing music with a band, a lot of the pressure that you feel, it can be painful. Julie, I want to, if we might, you know, talking about earplugs, the AirPods are just incredibly popular. You walk around the streets of Baltimore, Charlotte, Manhattan, anywhere you go, people have their AirPods in their ears.
They’re also very sophisticated tools. They do a lot of hearing tests, although not, in my opinion, not as comparable to what you do. I’m not an expert, you are, but there were some recent survey results from Apple.
What do you think about those survey results?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
I think, I’ve said this before on your show, but it’s always worth saying again, anything that promotes attention to hearing loss and access to hearing health care and hearing health behavior change, so just encouraging people to pay attention to their hearing and seek measurement and finding out more information and then maybe even trying something like an amplifier or an over-the-counter hearing aid that Apple offers in their AirPods just excites me because it just means that there’s less stigma and more motivation for people to actually pay attention and take care of their hearing health. The study that just came out recently just really supports all of that. The study shows that most people are not as aware of their own hearing difficulty as the test results might show and that having that access, the ability to pop in a pair of Apple AirPods and do a quick measurement on your phone, the measurement seems to be pretty accurate as far as app-related hearing measurements go.
Like you said, it’s not as comprehensive and it’s not as detailed as a full evaluation would be if you were to come see me at my office and do a whole assessment in our booth with all of the equipment that we use, but it’s pretty accurate in terms of just being able to establish your an approximation of your hearing levels. For people who are struggling and feel like they do have hearing difficulty, it’s a nice way to identify where that hearing difficulty might be and then use your Apple AirPods to amplify sound as you need it. It’s a great intro into, again, that health behavior change of recognizing that you’re having hearing difficulty and doing something about it without taking that major step of visiting a health care professional or even laying out increased funds to purchase prescription hearing aids.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
It tells you. I have the AirPod 2 or 3, whatever the latest version is. It tells you through your watch, through your phone, when things are too loud through the car, it’ll tell you, hey, you’re above a certain threshold.
Julie, do you think that this prompts more people? Well, you already said that it prompts more people to be aware, but now let’s take it a step forward. Does it does it prompt people to go see an audiologist or an otolaryngologist?
I think that’s the professional name for the doctor to check their ear health. And does it start mean that they’re going to start earlier? So like a 20-year-old, a 25-year-old, a 30-year-old rather than a Gen Xer like us?
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Yeah, no, I do. I think that it certainly reduces the stigma. We live in a world where we are getting more and more accustomed to wearable tech.
So tracking our steps, using our Apple Watch, using just earbuds for communication. So it’s becoming just so commonplace to see people with wearable technology that I think that there is going to be a big reduction in that stigma for people who might need hearing support to use something like those over-the-counter devices. And I think that it is a nice intro for people who maybe will need more support down the road.
It’s a great way for them to step into it or dip their toes into it before they’re ready to actually come see someone like me who’s a licensed professional who can provide a bit more support and then provide them with more refined prescription devices that are probably more appropriate for what their hearing needs are, but they have to be ready to do that. So again, I’ve always said that if it’s a method for getting someone on the right track and motivated a little bit sooner than they otherwise would have been, then I’m all for it. I’m a big fan.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, kudos to Apple and of course the others that are doing this. Too lengthy a list to name, but there’s a lot of good technology out there. Dr. Noor and Julie, we’re going to have to leave it there. It’s always great to see you and look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
Julie Norin, AuD. CCC-A, Towson University
Thank you. It’s always my pleasure.
