THIS BLOG HAS BEEN WRITTEN SUCH THAT IT CAN BE COPIED AND GIVEN OUT TO YOUR CLIENTS:
(It is the correct length to be copied onto your clinic letterhead, with the source cited as “from HearingHealthMatters.org/HearTheMusic)
It’s not all about music!
Well, it is, but when it comes to our daily dose of exposure to all sounds, music may be standing in line.
We do know that prolonged exposures to music (and factory noise) can cause measurable and significant hearing loss over a long period. The effects are not usually immediate (although they can be), and that is one of the features of hearing loss prevention that stands in our way. It would be great, from an educational point of view, if blood gushed from our ears whenever were over-exposed to loud music or noise. It would certainly mess up the carpet, but at least it would be noticed. The media interview about hearing loss prevention would go like this:
Interviewer: I understand that exposure to noise and music can cause permanent hearing loss. What are some of the symptoms to watch for?
Marshall: Well, blood gushes out of your ears and gets all over your clothes and carpeting.
Interviewer: Well, thank you. Have a nice day.
That would be the end of the interview, and other than rushing to the dry cleaner and having your carpet cleaned professionally, that would be the end of it.
Another aspect of hearing loss prevention is that noise or music that is potentially damaging need not be particularly loud. Prolonged exposure to anything over 85 decibels (dBA for the purists among us) will cause measurable hearing loss after about a year. It will be slight at first, but will gradually increase over the years. A sound level of 85 decibels is really quite quiet. A dial tone is 85 dB; so is flushing your toilet (with your head in the bowl). Incidentally, flushing your toilet while standing next to it, is only about 77 dB (not that I’ve measured it, though).
There are noise and music sources everywhere that exceed 85 dB. I was at an airport several weeks ago and nobody could hear the announcements (that my flight was delayed another 3 hours) because the room noise was so high. Pulling out my trusty iPad and using an app that simulates a sound level meter, I found that the noise level around the airline agent was about 87 dBA (A-weighted). When I went to to the pub (for tea, of course), the sound level dropped to about 85 dBA.
Nobody at the airport was running for cover with hands over their ears, yet the ambient noise level was potentially damaging.
Another aspect of noise or music is that our judgment of its sound level can be affected by background noise. While I was listening to the car radio at what seemed like comfortable level for driving on the highway at the speed limit, the radio was blaring away at 88 dBA. (Note: despite having a red convertible, I never exceed the speed limit.) When the police officer pulled me over, the radio was so loud that I had to turn it down to hear the constable. In both cases the radio was blaring away at 88 dBA, but when I was pulled over to the side of the road, it was uncomfortably loud. Did you know that police officers don’t like it when the radio is blaring away? Imagine how uncomfortable the situation would have been if my ears were gushing blood over his nicely pressed uniform!
So, noise and music exposure can be affected by the intensity (measured with a sound level meter), the duration (measured with your watch), and background noise (as measured with a radar gun).
