A little information about how much is too much when listening to loud sounds…

When our ears are exposed to loud sounds for prolonged periods of time it is causing damage to the tiny hair cells in our organ of hearing; the cochlea. In particular, sudden loud bursts of sounds (such as nail guns, jack hammers) or loud sounds in confined spaces or close to the ear drum (such as loud music in a car or rehearsal room or listening to loud sounds through earphones) are the most damaging because of the proximity to the ear drum.

The concerning part of this is that once the damage is done, it is irreversible. Even more concerning is because we can’t see the damage we are doing, or the effect of the damage is not noticeable immediately, people are less likely to consider the impact and in turn do something to protect their ears.

The louder the sound is, the less time you can safely listen to it without causing damage. For example, Drum rehearsals (115 dB) are safe for less than 3 minutes per week without hearing protection. Consider that personal listening devices such as iPod® and MP3 players have a maximum volume of up to 100 – 115dB; some greater than this depending on the headphones or ear buds used. Most people tend to listen at such high levels to drown out the surrounding noises when using these devices.

All of this highlights the importance of protecting our ears from high levels of sound when ever we can and the younger we are when we do this, the reduced chance of causing life long irreversible hearing loss.