Photo credit: Toni Ferreira
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Modern life is too loud. Everyday noise exposure can cause noise-induced hearing loss, the only type of hearing loss that is entirely preventable. Many noise exposures are involuntary — the noise inside a bus or subway car, from a jackhammer or a motorcycle’s exhaust pipe — but many people voluntarily expose themselves to dangerously high noise levels when using personal listening devices. This type of everyday noise exposure can cause hearing loss in minutes.
That’s the main point of a recent Newsweek article, citing Amy Sarow, the lead audiologist at hearing aid marketplace Soundly. Sarow recommends keeping personal listening device sound output levels to 80 decibels for no more than eight hours, and points out that brief high-level noise exposures can cause auditory damage quickly.
“I’ve seen an increase in the number of young people with noise-induced hearing loss or tinnitus (ringing in ears). Noise-induced hearing loss is especially common among Gen Z millennials, who often use headphones to listen to music, videos, or other audio,” she said. Sarow insisted that “self-regulation is important” to prevent hearing loss.
I’m glad an audiologist is speaking out about the dangers of personal listening devices, but I disagree with some of Sarow’s points. First, I think government intervention rather than self-regulation is needed to protect the public’s auditory health, at a minimum warning labels on personal listening devices, headphone and earbuds, stating,”USE OF THIS DEVICE CAN CAUSE HEARING LOSS.” Federally-mandated sound level limits on devices would be better.
Second, as I presented at the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Nashville last December, the safe noise level to prevent auditory damage may be as low as 55 decibels or A-weighted* decibels, the effective quiet level required for the human ear to recover from a noise-induced temporary threshold shift.
Third, and I know this is a radical idea, looking for a safe personal listening device that won’t cause auditory damage is like looking for a safe cigarette: you won’t find one. Sarow’s advice will help personal listening device users listen more safely to their music or audiobooks, but will not prevent noise-induced auditory damage. Why not? To be able to hear what they are listening to when walking down the street or taking public transit, people will turn up the volume so they can hear over the high ambient noise levels, and that will be loud enough to cause auditory damage. They should listen to their device in a quiet room to realize just how loud the sound really is.
If it sounds loud, it’s too loud and their auditory health is at risk.
*A-weighting adjusts sound measurements to approximate the frequencies heard in human speech.
DISCLOSURE: The Quiet Coalition has no relationship with Amy Sarow or Soundly.
