Alex Kuczynski's Thursday Styles article today on the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store is a highly enjoyable read, and all smart n' stuff too (Porfirio Rubirosa, you're my kind of man).

But fun and seemingly fluffy as it is, it actually belongs in the news section, because with a little old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting she discovers that Abercrombie & Fitch is creating a dangerous environment for its employees:

ON my second, third and fourth visits, I arrived with a decibel meter because I wanted to find out exactly how loud the place was. Following guidelines set forth by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, I recorded decibel levels from the low to the high 80's most of the time I was in the store, although a few songs were played at higher volumes. One reached a peak of 97 decibels. Anything over 85 decibels can damage hearing, according to Amy K. Boyle, the public education director of the League for the Hard of Hearing.

"If you have to shout in order to be heard, you are probably in an environment that could be damaging to your hearing," she told me. "A simple rule of thumb is that if you have to yell from three feet away, the background noise is too high." (Typical conversation registers at about 60 decibels, busy city traffic at about 85; gas mowers and tractors register in the 90's.)

She aks Abercrombie vice president for corporate communications Thomas D. Lennox about it and he says they monitor it, which means they know or ought to know that the levels in the store are damaging to their employees and their young, vulnerable eardrums. Which to me is the real story here: that Ambercrombie & Fitch know they could be permanently injuring their employees, and don't particularly seem to care (after all, they hadn't received any complaints from customers). Noise in the city is a real issue; it was a New York cover story last summer, and that was just about recreational noise; it didn't address the minimal levels of safety that ought to be guaranteed by the workplace (I'd say that lower than a sustained level of hearing-damaging 85-decibel music is a good start). C'mon NYT, jump on this! The Pulitzer Board awaits (Fishbowl would do it but looky that, we're not eligible).

Please not that this item is not an endorsement of Kuczynski's critical assessment of Erasure, which actually physically hurt to read. A little respect, if you please.

Browsing Out Loud [NYT]

Related:
What Makes The City So Noisy? [NY Mag]
Oh L'Amour, A Wonderful And Delightful Song [Erasure]

*Oh, don't look at me like that. It's the pic from the Abercrombie home page. Can I help it if it makes me really, really happy?