Know Before You Go: Restaurant Noise and What You Can Do About It

with Howard Davis, Barbara Haynes-Davis, Fredrick Orkin 

Wed. January 22 1-2:15pm

Loud noise in restaurants is annoying and it keeps some people away who would like to dine out. In this course, our speakers explain that excessive noise not only creates a challenge for meaningful conversations, but it can cause hearing damage. They will offer tools to identify noisy environments and strategies to encourage restaurants to lower their noise levels. You can make your voice heard – without raising it – by signing a petition they created that asks the NYC Council to amend the city’s Noise Control Law.  The amendment will compel restaurants to hire an NYC-approved audio expert to take a decibel reading in each restaurant, and then have the results publicly posted so diners will know the noise level before they go. The course is for anyone passionate about health, community advocacy or simply enjoying a peaceful meal. Howard Davis is a retired medical malpractice attorney; Barbara Haynes-Davis is a former NBC-TV News producer; Dr.  Fredrick Orkin is a retired academic physician whose scholarly work related to patient safety and public health issues.