Safe Listening: Know Your Volume

Music promotes positive emotions and helps to reduce stress. We have easy access to music in our smartphones by listening with earphone or headphone. Both devices help us to enjoy and immerse ourselves into the world of music. 

We normally listen to music when we are stuck in the traffic jam, waiting for a train or buses, doing work in the office. When a good music is on it can tempt us to turn up the volume so that we mask out the surrounding noise.

Zahidah, Audiologist

But, do you know how loud you have been exposed?

On average, a smartphone could produce more than 100 decibels at its maximum volume. That is way too loud. Listening to a chainsaw or an electric drill annoys us but listening to music at same level soothe us. Sound emitted by a chainsaw could range from 100 to 120 decibels and sound emitted by an electric drill range from 95 to 100 decibels. In most cases, people do not hear at this level but volume selection is affected by the environment.

Do you know that listening at a maximum level, you can get hearing damaged in 15 minutes!

At half of the volume setting, an average smartphone could produce up to 70 to 80 decibels. This is similar to sound emitted by a vacuum cleaner or a lawnmower. It is still within the safe decibels level outlined by National Institute of Occupational Noise and Safety (NIOSH). However, hearing loss due to noise exposure depends on the duration, intensity of the noise and type of noise exposure. Most smartphones will display a warning message when you reach a limit. Ignoring this message will put your hearing at risk of damage.

You may not realize that hearing problem caused by music or recreational noise as it develop over a long period of time. After a year or even few months after a consistent listening to your personal listening device, you may experience ringing in the ear and listening to speech in a noisy environment will begin to be difficult. 

Then communicating will be a chore and the people around you will start to feel stress when talking to you. You will keep missing out informations and often ask for repetition. Your friends will now have to raise their voice and this will not be comfortable for you or to them. If you have these symptoms, it is time to make an appointment to see your Audiologist for hearing check-up and consultation.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 1.1 billion young people all over the world could have hearing problem due to unsafe listening habits. Music-induced hearing loss is preventable. But once you lost your hearing, it will never be the same.

So here some tips for a good listening habit:

1)      Earphone versus headphone

-   Look for noise-cancelling earphone or headphone that could reduce the needs to increase the volume in noisy environment however this may affect your safety on the roads.

-      Some say earphone is better as it is closer to your ear and reduce the need for higher volume. However, the closer the device is to your ear with a high volume, the higher the risk of it damaging your hearing

2)      Control your listening time by using 60/60 rule

-     Volume should not be more than 60% of its maximum level, for not more than 60 minutes of listening time

3)      Move away from noisy environment

-   This will reduce the needs to increase the volume

4)      Give your ear a time to recover from exposure to loud noises

5)    Don’t forget to wear protection if you work in a noisy environment or use a custom          made musicians earplugs.

Written by,

Zahidah

Audiologist

Ref:

http://counseling.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/coping-music_reduce_stress.pdf http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/154589/1/9789241508513_eng.pdf http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/safelistening/Documents/Standards_for_saf e_listening_devices_situation_analysis_report.pdf