People Affected: Music Lovers

Attending a concert or a nightclub

When attending a concert or nightclub it is a regular occurrence to shout to be heard. An environment with this high level of sound can cause problems in a very short period of time with 75% of regular attendees at risk of permanent hearing damage. Young people are especially at risk is this situation and we are now looking at the possibility of a deaf generation in twenty to thirty years time unless there is a major movement towards using hearing protection at loud music events. Noise levels in social settings are reaching alarming rates, demonstrated by the vast number of bars and pubs that now require shouting for communication.

People who want to prevent this damage are faced with the choice of abstaining, limiting exposure to 15 minutes or using hearing protection while at the concert to save their ears. 46% of young people know that ringing in their ears is a sign of damage but they may not know how to go about preventing this damage.

We have put together a handy concert goers guide to hearing protection so that you can continue to enjoy the tunes for many years to come:

• Don’t stand right beside the speakers at a concert. When you double the distance between you and the speakers you halve the dB level and the music does not need to be at the loudest volume to enjoy it fully.
• Take a break. If it’s possible to go to a quiet area for a period of respite then take this opportunity, your ears will thank you for the rest.
• Wear earplugs. This is especially important if you are regularly exposed to high noise levels. Using cottonwool, tissue or wearing earplugs loosely will not protect your hearing to the same extent so be sure to use the real thing. Earplugs are relatively inexpensive and will have been worth the effort when you can still listen to your favourite music when the grey hair sets in.

Listening to an MP3 player

It is impossible to board any form of public transport nowadays without seeing headphones protruding from the ears of the majority of your fellow passengers. With the miniaturisation of devices along with increased memory capacity, this allows us to enjoy music in any location but this brings its own set of hearing hazards with it.

The biggest culprits are not the devices themselves, but the inner ear headphone. The inner ear headphones are more likely to cause hearing loss than the outer ear earphones that cover the ear and are less popular among commuters and young people. The smaller the headphones the greater the sound intensity level delivered to the ear. In essence this means that at the same volume setting on any device inner ear headphones will do a greater amount of damage than their larger outer ear counterpart. Inner ear headphones are also less effective in blocking out environmental sounds so users have a tendency to raise the volume to compensate for this.

Any sound over 85 decibels exceeds what hearing experts consider to be a safe level, and some MP3 players are programmed to reach levels as high as 120 dB at their maximum, this is equivalent to standing around 30 metres away from a jet airplane taking off or landing.

The following table indicates the average amount of time that is safe to use an mp3 player for:

The battery life of these devices usually allows users to listen for much greater periods of time, in turn causing more damage. We advise to use the volume limitation setting on your device, use outer ear headphones and limit the amount of time the device is used on a daily basis. Music can still be enjoyed through this wonderfully portable medium when a few precautions are taken to protect your hearing.