ACSH received deafening criticism from some of our friends regarding our handling of the Not Empty Noise story yesterday, in which we wondered why the European Union isn't warning spectators at World Cup soccer games about the dangers of possible hearing loss from plastic horns known as vuvuzelas. Stier explains, We should have expressed more skepticism towards the referenced hearing loss study, as many of you rightly advised. However, we did not intend to give a free ride to that study. Rather, we wanted to highlight the double standard: If the EU is up in arms over even weaker evidence concerning chemicals such as phthalates, why are they turning a blind eye to the potential danger of vuvuzela? They deem phthalates dangerous, yet the EU health authorities seem blithely indifferent to the potential hearing loss from vuvuzelas."
Last night, Stier visited Yankee Stadium, and there was quite a loud buzz about the fact that vuvuzelas were banned there for being too loud. In fact, theNew York Postreported it this morning.