Avoid Exposure to Loud Sounds
If you’ve been following our series then you know we covered unintended loud noises and that you need to give your ears a break. They both touch on the importance of reducing your exposure to loud sounds because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
One of the most common causes of hearing loss is having excessive exposure to loud noise. High pitched noises are especially damaging to your hearing. Loud sounds can destroy the sensitive hair cells on the cochlea, which leads to sensorineural hearing loss.
Some of the most common types of loud sounds that should be avoided include the high-pitched whirr of power tools, the quick but powerful burst of sound from explosives, the loud bass of rock concerts, the loud engines of construction work machinery, the constant hum of factory assembly equipment, vocal crowds like you see at large sporting events and all types of gunfire. Although it may be impossible to avoid many situations where you may experience loud noises, you should take the appropriate measures to reduce the risk of hearing loss in these situations.
To give you a better idea of what those sounds are in decibel values, take a look at this quick list:
- Shotgun firing (100-200 ft.) is 130 dB, you start to feel pain in your ears after 125 dB
- Symphony orchestra is 110 dB
- Garbage truck is 100 dB
- The subway is 88 dB
- Average city traffic is 80 dB
As you can see, it doesn’t take much for our ears to be overwhelmed so it’s important that we try to avoid exposure when possible