Bermuda must be a lot quieter than East London.

I thought it would be, but actually it is not. Is it very noisy. It surprised me when I first came here. There is no real countryside to get away from the noise. Motorbikes are very noisy. People are always tooting their horns. Although, just walking down the road you are probably not at risk of noise damage because you don't do it for eight hours a day.

How loud is too loud?

Too loud is fairly variable. But anything over 85 decibels over a long period of time can damage your hearing. People who work in noisy environments every day are at risk. People who use their MP3 players every day are at risk if they don't reduce the volume. Gardeners are at risk because the equipment they use is very loud. All sorts of environments we might not consider to be noisy, are.

A lot of people must damage their hearing in the workplace.

I have people tell me 'I work with sirens all the time, but it doesn't bother me'. That's because they probably already have a little bit of hearing loss. People need to understand that just because the sound isn't bothering them, doesn't mean they aren't damaging their hearing. All those construction workers who are using the pneumatic drills without any ear protection are at risk. The people who surround them as well, without ear protection, are also damaging their hearing.

What can someone like a fireman do?

People can protect their hearing by using noise plugs.

But what if the person also needs to hear what is going on around them?

Noise plugs are fairly sophisticated these days. They have filters in them.

In a lot of the environments it is important to hear the people around them. You can get filtered noise plugs which will filter out all the noise but still enable you to hear reasonably well.

It is never going to be perfect and sometimes you may have to take them out. The more you protect your ears the least likely you are to get hearing loss.

Is it mainly older people you see with hearing damage?

We are seeing younger and younger people with noise-damaged hearing. I think it is important to target school age children, because of all the new technology we have. We are popping things in our ears and not thinking about how loud they are, although that type of damage isn't instant. It will be a number of years later that the damage is done. And once your hearing is gone it's gone. You can't bring back hearing that has been damaged by noise.

Is there an optimum volume setting for a portable music device?

They don't give you a decibel level on some devices. But I always say if I can hear the traffic around me, if I can hear someone say 'good afternoon', then I have it okay. If you can't hear anything else around you it is way too loud.

A lot of people use their earphones to listen to music on the mopeds and then turn it up above the noise of their bikes. The bikes are already too loud, so the portable music device becomes much louder than it should be.

How loud is a motorbike?

Here, a motorbike is around about 90 decibels which is at a dangerous level. So if you are turning your MP3 player up above that you could be damaging your hearing.

Do you have perfect hearing?

As far as I am aware I do, and I want to keep it that way.

Are doctors now required by law to test the hearing of newborn babies?

Babies have their hearing tested within the first few weeks of being born. It is a screening programme. It is not the law, as far as I know. You can refuse if you want to, although I can't imagine why anyone would want to.

Should you have your child tested again when they are toddlers?

There is another screening test in the first year of primary school. In between that time, if parents are worried, parents can go to their paediatrician and they will be sent here to us.

Are there any warning signs for children?

It is difficult with children because of how they behave. [Telltale signs can be] if they want the television turned up louder than everybody else; if you are reading stories to them and they want you to repeat what you just said; if their speech isn't developing well. All these can be clues that their hearing may not be what it should be.

Are there any risk factors like family history?

Family history is certainly a risk factor. If anyone in your immediate family has a hearing loss not related to a viral infection, that child should have their hearing tested regularly to see if there is a decrease in their hearing thresholds.

How is hearing tested?

For an adult they would go into a soundproof booth with head phones and they would listen to pure tones at different frequencies. They would need to push the button when they hear a sound. Each ear is tested separately. That is how we find the threshold.

How did you become interested in audiology?

I was a neonatal screener at a hospital in East London for a few years. I came across the job. Once I entered into it, I became more interested.

So I trained to become an audiologist. Nowadays, more people are making the choice, rather than falling into it.

How many audiologists are there in Bermuda?

As far as I am aware I am the only working audiologist. I believe there are some that work in schools, but I think they are more on the speech side of things.

I think they do other things as well. So I couldn't say for sure if there are more.