OTTAWA (CP) - - It's no laughing matter: Some noisy toys are loud enough to damage children's hearing, says the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists.

If you have to raise your voice to be heard over a squawking toy, it's too loud, Linda Rammage, president of the association, told a news conference Monday.

Under Health Canada standards, toys are not supposed to emit sounds louder than 100 decibels, but she said kids sometimes hold toys to their ears, getting more exposure.

A decibel is a measuring unit for the loudness of sound: normal conversation is about 60 decibels and the rating for a school dance or a snowmobile is about 100 decibels.

That whining leaf blower the neighbour revs up on weekend mornings, clocks in at 109 decibels.

Experts say the danger zone is prolonged exposure to 80 decibels or more.

There's no proof that toys alone are causing hearing loss, but noise-induced hearing loss is a rising among children, and experts agree that toys are part of the problem.

"Noise-induced hearing loss is occurring younger and younger," said Gael Hannan of the Canadian Hearing Foundation.

Hannan said music devices such as audio players are especially worrisome because they tend to be used for extended periods of time. These devices now are being marketed to young children.

A U.S. study in 1992 found that the percentage of second graders with hearing loss had increased 2.8 times over the previous decade, while hearing loss for eighth graders had increased by four times.

In 2004 a Quebec group, Options consommateurs, found that more than 60 per cent of toys it tested exceeded the Health Canada noise limit when held up within a centimeter of the ear.

The Hazardous Products Act bans toys emitting noise above 100 decibels "measured at the distance that the product ordinarily would be from the ear of the child using it."

Health Canada has developed a testing protocol that specifies "ordinary use" distances for eight different groups of noise-emitting toys.

A consumers group, the National Coalition on Noisy Toys, suggests a more pragmatic solution for frazzled parents: toys with a volume control. Or, try muting the speaker with a patch of tape.