Doc urges warning on park noise

[montana500]

www.wilderness-sportsman.com (news setion)

"JACKSON -- A Yale University physician and professor said the National Park Service should issue warnings to the public and park employees about potential hearing damage sustained from winter snowmobile noise.

Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, occupational and environmental medicine program professor at the New Haven, Conn., school, said this week a Park Service report showed noise was "high enough to potentially cause hearing loss if the exposure was prolonged."

He said the snowmobiles involved in the study were "best available technology," and those appear to "still produce sound levels that can be damaging to an operator's ears."