According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), 30 million Americans of all ages are exposed to hazardous sound levels on a regular basis.
How loud is too loud?
Experts on hearing damage caused by excessive noise say even one minute of exposure to noise over 110 decibels can lead to permanent hearing loss. An amplified rock concert typically is around 140 decibels.
Maybe you're not a rock music fan, but your job requires you to use power tools. Or you work in a group that uses noisy equipment. What would put you in a situation where that 110-decibel danger level would be reached and stay there for a damaging minute?
A chain saw reaches 110 decibels.
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A wood shop comes in at an even 100 decibels. No more than 15 minutes of unprotected exposure is recommended.
Damage can result from either a brief, intense noise like an explosion, or from sustained noises such as those produced by woodworking and power tools.
The sudden, sharp sound may produce instantaneous damage and result in an immediate hearing loss that can be permanent. The harm may be accompanied by tinnitus--a ringing or buzzing in the ears.
Tinnitus may subside over time. It also might continue constantly or intermittently for the rest of your life.
Much of this exposure is at work around machines and power tools. However, people are also exposed to loud noises at home and at play.
Sources of loud sounds that can cause noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) include motorcycles, firecrackers and small arms fire. All create sounds from 120 to 140 decibels.
Go-carts, snowmobiles, power horns, cap guns and powered model airplanes can all damage your hearing as well.
At home, harmful noises may come from lawn mowers, leaf blowers, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.
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Both forms of NIHL--from a brief, intense exposure or from years of industrial exposure to a noise level of around 85 or 90 decibels--can be prevented by using hearing protectors such as ear plugs or ear muffs.
A final note about decibels (dBA), a measure of loudness.
The decibel scale is based on the power of 10 (logarithmic) and not on simple arithmetic. Thus, a reading of 10 dBA means that the sound is 10 times the reference sound--the threshold of normal hearing.
But 20 dBA doesn't mean that the sound is merely twice as loud as 10, but 100 times as intense (10 x 10). A level of 30 dBA would be 1,000 times as loud (10 x 10 x 10) and so on.
As long as you remember that each additional 10 dBAs means the sound is increased tenfold, you won't be taken in by anybody who tries to soothe your hearing concerns with something being 'just a few decibels more.' Each increase of 3 on the scale means a doubling of intensity. So if a sound measures 93 decibels, it is not 'just over 90.' It means that twice as much sound energy is pounding into your ear, and possibly inflicting lifelong hearing impairment.
Copyright 2001 by Dr. Phillip L. Polakoff and medical writer Jack Tucker/Press Associates news service.
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According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), 30 million Americans of all ages are exposed to hazardous sound levels on a regular basis.
How loud is too loud?
Experts on hearing damage caused by excessive noise say even one minute of exposure to noise over 110 decibels can lead to permanent hearing loss. An amplified rock concert typically is around 140 decibels.
Maybe you’re not a rock music fan, but your job requires you to use power tools. Or you work in a group that uses noisy equipment. What would put you in a situation where that 110-decibel danger level would be reached and stay there for a damaging minute?
A chain saw reaches 110 decibels.
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A wood shop comes in at an even 100 decibels. No more than 15 minutes of unprotected exposure is recommended.
Damage can result from either a brief, intense noise like an explosion, or from sustained noises such as those produced by woodworking and power tools.
The sudden, sharp sound may produce instantaneous damage and result in an immediate hearing loss that can be permanent. The harm may be accompanied by tinnitus–a ringing or buzzing in the ears.
Tinnitus may subside over time. It also might continue constantly or intermittently for the rest of your life.
Much of this exposure is at work around machines and power tools. However, people are also exposed to loud noises at home and at play.
Sources of loud sounds that can cause noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) include motorcycles, firecrackers and small arms fire. All create sounds from 120 to 140 decibels.
Go-carts, snowmobiles, power horns, cap guns and powered model airplanes can all damage your hearing as well.
At home, harmful noises may come from lawn mowers, leaf blowers, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.
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Both forms of NIHL–from a brief, intense exposure or from years of industrial exposure to a noise level of around 85 or 90 decibels–can be prevented by using hearing protectors such as ear plugs or ear muffs.
A final note about decibels (dBA), a measure of loudness.
The decibel scale is based on the power of 10 (logarithmic) and not on simple arithmetic. Thus, a reading of 10 dBA means that the sound is 10 times the reference sound–the threshold of normal hearing.
But 20 dBA doesn’t mean that the sound is merely twice as loud as 10, but 100 times as intense (10 x 10). A level of 30 dBA would be 1,000 times as loud (10 x 10 x 10) and so on.
As long as you remember that each additional 10 dBAs means the sound is increased tenfold, you won’t be taken in by anybody who tries to soothe your hearing concerns with something being ‘just a few decibels more.’ Each increase of 3 on the scale means a doubling of intensity. So if a sound measures 93 decibels, it is not ‘just over 90.’ It means that twice as much sound energy is pounding into your ear, and possibly inflicting lifelong hearing impairment.
Copyright 2001 by Dr. Phillip L. Polakoff and medical writer Jack Tucker/Press Associates news service.