(HealthDayNews) -- Have you ever wandered into a video arcade and been blasted out by the sound level as the kids blow up bad guys or turn space aliens into Swiss cheese?
You should know that the noise isn't just bad for you, it could be bad for the kids.
When students at the Gifu University School of Medicine, Japan, measured noise inside a typical video arcade, they calculated that the noise level is more than 90 decibels at least 90 percent of the time. A person could safely tolerate that volume for about an hour. That would produce some hearing loss, but it would only be temporary.
However, the journal Industrial Health says, prolonged exposure -- what you would get if you were working at an arcade or saving Alpha Centauri from the Deepspace Pirates at the 18th level -- can cause permanent hearing loss unless you wear ear plugs.
