Category: Safe Sound Science

• Jan’s Coping Toolbox: Lessons Learned in 2025

  Welp. 2025 sucked. I like to think I’m pretty good at self-care strategies. But last year was challenging. Here’s my recap including the worst comment from a healthcare provider and…

  

• What is Safe Listening?

  My article is included in The Safe Listening Issue of Hearing Health magazine. Because it’s 2026. But the answer is wrong if you ask Artificial Intelligence, AI, or chatbots the…

  

• 2026 Year of Quiet Activism

  I hope you’ll join me in 2026 for a year of quiet activism. I’m planning to share safe soundscape content, challenges, polls, quizzes, and educational activities.  Why?  Health and communication…

  

• Digital Tech Dangers: Screen Time & Personal Listening

  My latest Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan series is on the Dangers of screen time for children and teens at home and school. Now on YouTube and TikTok, I…

  

• Send a Letter: Save the Whales

  Three Urgent Action Alerts Send a letter, save a whale! Do you care about climate change, natural environments, and biodiversity? Nature and conservation groups are calling Canadians to urgent action…

  

• Nature Canada Urgent Call to Action

  Note: The following content is also available in video format on YouTube at Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan: Canada’s Nature is in Crisis. Does the environment matter to you?…

  

• Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan

  Are you looking for a tinnitus hyperacusis playlist of science supported info on free coping tools or self-help strategies? Maybe you want a playlist on the facts about environmental noise…

  

• Environmental Noise Risk Quiz

  How much do you know about the rising public health emergency from preventable noise pollution? Check your knowledge with this quick quiz.

  

• Granny Jan now on the YouTube

  I’m going really high tech. You’ve listened to simulated tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss on my SoundCloud. (If not, check it out! Scare yourself. Scare friends and loved ones.) But…

  

• Rethinking Care for Hyperacusis

  My latest article in Tinnitus Today (Spring 2025) is titled When the patient becomes the clinician: Rethinking care for sound hypersensitivity. In this post, I’m giving a short overview and…

  

• Tinnitus & Hearing Loss Simulations

  Image by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash. What does it sound like to have tinnitus caused by loud music or noise exposure? I’ve put together a short SoundCloud playlist of noise-induced…

  

• Ministry of Education Makes Recommendations on Student Screen Time and Use of Digital Devices

  In New Zealand, the Ministry of Education has updated their website to address health and safety management of digital device use by staff and students. This was done in consultation…

  

• Building Balanced Screen Time for Today’s Tech-Savvy Youth

  I’m happy to share that my new article was published in the Winter 2024 issue of Tinnitus Today. The focus is nurturing healthy digital habits among today’s youth. Children and…

  

• Screen Time and Health Risks in Children and Teens

  I am a co-author of a new study, along with lead author Julie Cullen, on the impact of digital technologies on health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Our study…

  

• Safer Personal Listening Guidelines

  If ears bled from unsafe personal listening with headphones or earbuds, maybe there would be mandatory manufacturing safety standards to better protect public health. Imagine riding a 10 speed bike,…

  

• Teaching Children and Teens about Safer Personal Listening

  There are many causes of early childhood or teen onset hearing loss, tinnitus, and/or hyperacusis (decreased sound tolerance). Unlike other causes, early noise damage to hearing health is entirely preventable.…

  

• Gaming Could be a Contributing Factor to Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

  Dangerously misleading “safe” listening information is shared in a recent article in the British Medical Journal that found gaming could lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. Risks included gaming at…

  

• Style Guidelines for Children’s Hearing Protection

  As a general rule, earplugs are not recommended for children up to age 12 unless prescribed or fit by an audiologist or hearing healthcare professional. Earplugs are difficult to insert…

  

• This is Your Brain on Noise

  It is generally accepted that loud and very loud noise exposures can cause hearing loss. When I first read Dr. J.J. Eggermont’s book Noise and the Brain, I was horrified.…

  

• No Hearing Protection at Stadium Sports Events

  I was excited to watch the Canada vs Belgium World Cup men’s soccer match in Qatar. I had no doubt our team would do Canada proud. But this isn’t about…

  

• Call to Action: SoundPrint’s Find Your Quiet Place Challenge

  I’m partnering with SoundPrint, a hearing health app, to promote hearing health awareness this October. I don’t represent an organization. I’m just one person. But every person counts when it…

  

• Protecting Hearing at Concerts

  Images by Jan L. Mayes Whether it’s pop, rock, or country, amplified music at concerts is loud enough to damage hearing health. I’m an old bat in my 50’s and…

  

• If Ears Bled from Everyday Noise Exposures

  The image for this post was a graphic for a hearing health shock campaign I planned in 2017. I wanted to raise awareness about noise risk from common everyday sound…

  

• Virtual Reality Headset with Ultrasound Exposure

  Apple’s new patent for an Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality (AR/VR) headset includes ultrasonic sound waves to simulate a breeze or physical sensations on the user’s face while they interact…

  

• The Health Impact of Environmental Noise

  [Originally published at silencity.com in 2019; noise risk decibels revised April 14, 2022] Environmental noise is damaging and inflicts unwanted sounds into everyday life. In 1984, Gordon Hempton, The Sound…

  

• If Only We Could See the Damage of Noise Exposure

  I was very honoured to have my article featured in Tinnitus Today, Spring 2022 issue. I discuss science from my 2021 papers published in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, co-authored…

  

• Airhorn Noise Joke

  When my oldest child (now a young adult) arrived at work on April Fool’s Day this year, there was a noisy joke waiting for her. Co-workers rigged an air horn…

  

• Protecting Hearing for Life

  Written by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist (Retired) This article was originally published in Communique, the Speech-Language Audiology Canada blog: https://blog.sac-oac.ca/protecting-hearing-for-life/ The theme of World Hearing Day 2022 is, “To…

  

• Personal Listening Systems are Likely Unsafe at Any Sound

  I was excited to have a second paper published in The Hearing Journal, co-authored with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. We’re trying to raise awareness about personal listening…

  

• The Danger in Headphones

  I was honoured to be included in the Hearing Health Foundation Summer 2021 Entertainment issue. My article is on the danger in headphones (and earbuds).  It includes tips on how…