This week I've invited Lauren Dragan, a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, to give us some pointers on protecting our hearing. |
Here's a scary truth: What you might be doing right now to your ears could lead to permanent hearing damage. But the good news is that there are some easy things you can do to prevent it. |
Most people believe hearing damage is caused by sudden, excessive sound, like loud bangs and explosions. And that's true; incredibly loud individual sounds can damage your inner ears. But that's not how most noise-induced hearing loss is caused. It's caused by exposure to louder-than-recommended noises over a long period of time. This is because our ears' nerve cells — like your muscles after a workout — need a break every so often to repair themselves and flush out waste. If we don't give our ears that rest, the nerve cells can die. And once a hearing nerve cell dies it doesn't grow back, and the sound frequency it corresponded to is gone forever. This is why some people have trouble hearing speech, while others might not hear deep bass notes well. |
You may already have some hearing damage and not know it. |
To avoid hearing damage, the OSHA standard that the World Health Organization recommends over the course of an eight-hour day is 85 decibels (just above the average volume of the NYC subway). At 91 dB (a hair dryer), that time decreases to two hours. At 106 dB (about the level of a rock concert), you've got less than four minutes. In other words, the louder the sound you're experiencing, the less time you've got before bad things can happen. And once you've hit your daily threshold, you'll be putting your ears at risk. This adds up fast. Two hours in traffic, plus four hours drowning out co-workers with your headphones, plus a movie could equal maxing out your day's noise dosage. |
To add to the problem, we don't always notice when sounds are getting too loud to be safe. Like being unable to smell your own perfume, our bodies gradually adapt to the noises around us. So in order for something to feel louder in an already loud environment, we increasingly need to up the volume. |
First of all, protect. If you are going to be somewhere that you know is loud, wear earplugs. Not all earplugs are created equal. Some are made to muffle everything significantly, like Wirecutter's recommendation for sleeping. Others, like our concert-earplug pick from Loop, offer less reduction, just taking the edge off the volume, so you can hear more than with foam earplugs. |
Second, keep an eye on the volume at which you listen to music and movies, as well as the duration. The W.H.O. recommends listening at no more than roughly 60 percent of mobile-device volume for no more than 60 minutes at a time. This 60/60 recommendation applies to both kids and adults. So every hour or so, take a break. Get up, walk around, give your ears some silence. If you use an iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple Watch, set up the Headphone Notifications to be alerted when your volume consumption has exceeded safe limits. Apple Watch users running Watch OS6 or later can also enable the "Noise" app notifications, which will factor in environmental loudness to your weekly noise exposure diet. |
Third, consider new gear. If you ride the subway daily, fly long-haul often or work in a noisy environment, you may want to consider noise-cancelling or noise-isolating headphones. By blocking out the noise around you, you won't need to compete by turning up your music. If you have a child in your life, you'll absolutely want to invest in some volume-limiting headphones for kids. |
If you are already experiencing some hearing loss, consider a P.S.A.P., or personal sound amplification product. These devices are becoming more common due to the 2017 law that allows the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids. However, bear in mind, there isn't any safety regulation on these devices yet. Depending on the research involved in a given product's development, there may be varying levels of accuracy and safety. This also applies to headphones that test and adjust to your hearing via an included app, like these from Nura, Beyerdynamic, and MEE Audio. |
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