Tinnitus
07-13-2006, 12:21 PM
#1
Tinnitus
Approximately 50 million people have chronic tinnitus (persistent ringing in the ears) in the U.S alone. You might have read contributor and speaker engineer, Vance Dickason warn against regular and prolonged exposure to loud music. He's right to constantly sound the alarm, if you will. For many sufferers, the problem is so bad, it affects their abillity to work, sleep, and enjoy life. As our modern existence gets louder and louder, and amplification becomes not just an everyday fact but a bragging right, tinnitus will become more and more of a problem until it reaches epidemic levels. And there's no cure.
As a sufferer of tinnitus, I can tell you that it is not pleasant. It is distracting when you are trying to sleep, or relax, especially when one ear is pressed against a pillow or when you're wearing foam earplugs to block the sound of your partners snoring. The fact that you will never again experience complete silence is extremely disheartening.
WHAT IS TINNITUS?
Tinnitus is a malady of the inner ear, whereby one hears sound when there is no external physical sound present. It can be experienced as noises in the head or rining in the ewars, such as you may hear temporarily after attending a loud rock concert. It can be described as a hiss, roar, whine, or chirping. It is constant, ever-present and extemely disconcerting. The actual mechanism responsible for tinnitus is unknown. It is a real symptom of something that has gone wrong in the auditory or neural system. There are many differant probable causess for tinnitus, but the most common is prolonged exposure to loud sound. The A.T.S recommends you ear earplugs when exposed to sounds in exess of 85db for prolonged periods of time. Basically, if you have to shout to make your self heard, you should be wearing earplugs.
Recommended earplugs include those that reduce noise 15 to 30db. These can be custom fitted or foam plugs. Cottom ***** or paper tissue wadded into your ears only reduce noise by approximately 7db and are not considered effective. When noise exceeds to 105db, such as at a rock concert, club, or sound-off, the A.T.A recommends wearing both earplugs and earmuffs, adding another 10 to 15db in reduction.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE TINNITUS
If you feel you may have tinnitus or some hearing loss, you should visit an otolaryngologist for an examnation. This will help determine if there is a treatable medical condition causing the tinnitus (other causes include head, neck, or jaw injuries, presciription drug side effects, or a variety of other, non-sound related medical conditions).
There are numerous treatments available for tinnitus sufferers, ranging from hearing aids and masking units, which emit a white noise to distract you from the rining, to a varety of therapies, both drug and psychological. Your doctor will be able to help you determine which treatment or treatments are right for you. Remember, there is no known cute for tinnitus. Continued exposure to loud noise will certainly make tinnitus worse. If you must be in loud environments, always wear ear protection excessive use of alchol or recreational drugs can exacerbate tinnitus, as can caffeine, nicotine, asprin, quinine, and some antibiotics, Lastly, stress is a major contribution to exsiting tinnitus.
We certainly don't want to discourage people's desire to enjoy their car audio systems at a decent decible level, but you should understand that there are health risks if you are in the habit of playing music at an extreme volume.
THATS HOW LOUD?
20dB: Ticking Watch
30dB: Quit Whisper
40dB: Refrigerator Hum
50dB: Rainfall
60dB: Normal Conversation
70dB: Normal Street noise
80dB: Noisy Resturant
85dB: Average Factory
100dB: Blow dryer, Subway train
105dB: Chainsaw, Power mower
120dB: Rock Concert
130dB: Jet Engine (100' away)
140dB: Shotgun Blast
170+dB: Sound-off bass burp
For more info regarding tinnitus, please contact the American Tinnitus Association at 800.634.8978 or www.ata.org
I found this in car audio mag, the january 2006 edition, couldn't find it on the net, so I thought i'd write it up
As a sufferer of tinnitus, I can tell you that it is not pleasant. It is distracting when you are trying to sleep, or relax, especially when one ear is pressed against a pillow or when you're wearing foam earplugs to block the sound of your partners snoring. The fact that you will never again experience complete silence is extremely disheartening.
WHAT IS TINNITUS?
Tinnitus is a malady of the inner ear, whereby one hears sound when there is no external physical sound present. It can be experienced as noises in the head or rining in the ewars, such as you may hear temporarily after attending a loud rock concert. It can be described as a hiss, roar, whine, or chirping. It is constant, ever-present and extemely disconcerting. The actual mechanism responsible for tinnitus is unknown. It is a real symptom of something that has gone wrong in the auditory or neural system. There are many differant probable causess for tinnitus, but the most common is prolonged exposure to loud sound. The A.T.S recommends you ear earplugs when exposed to sounds in exess of 85db for prolonged periods of time. Basically, if you have to shout to make your self heard, you should be wearing earplugs.
Recommended earplugs include those that reduce noise 15 to 30db. These can be custom fitted or foam plugs. Cottom ***** or paper tissue wadded into your ears only reduce noise by approximately 7db and are not considered effective. When noise exceeds to 105db, such as at a rock concert, club, or sound-off, the A.T.A recommends wearing both earplugs and earmuffs, adding another 10 to 15db in reduction.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE TINNITUS
If you feel you may have tinnitus or some hearing loss, you should visit an otolaryngologist for an examnation. This will help determine if there is a treatable medical condition causing the tinnitus (other causes include head, neck, or jaw injuries, presciription drug side effects, or a variety of other, non-sound related medical conditions).
There are numerous treatments available for tinnitus sufferers, ranging from hearing aids and masking units, which emit a white noise to distract you from the rining, to a varety of therapies, both drug and psychological. Your doctor will be able to help you determine which treatment or treatments are right for you. Remember, there is no known cute for tinnitus. Continued exposure to loud noise will certainly make tinnitus worse. If you must be in loud environments, always wear ear protection excessive use of alchol or recreational drugs can exacerbate tinnitus, as can caffeine, nicotine, asprin, quinine, and some antibiotics, Lastly, stress is a major contribution to exsiting tinnitus.
We certainly don't want to discourage people's desire to enjoy their car audio systems at a decent decible level, but you should understand that there are health risks if you are in the habit of playing music at an extreme volume.
THATS HOW LOUD?
20dB: Ticking Watch
30dB: Quit Whisper
40dB: Refrigerator Hum
50dB: Rainfall
60dB: Normal Conversation
70dB: Normal Street noise
80dB: Noisy Resturant
85dB: Average Factory
100dB: Blow dryer, Subway train
105dB: Chainsaw, Power mower
120dB: Rock Concert
130dB: Jet Engine (100' away)
140dB: Shotgun Blast
170+dB: Sound-off bass burp
For more info regarding tinnitus, please contact the American Tinnitus Association at 800.634.8978 or www.ata.org
I found this in car audio mag, the january 2006 edition, couldn't find it on the net, so I thought i'd write it up
J/K Thanks for the informative write up.
07-13-2006, 02:50 PM
#6
Administrator
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 16,855
Interesting presentation and for sure hearing damage is nothing to make light of.
Did the statisticians break down the histories of the 50million sufferers? Had they, one would see that an amazingly minute number of them ever had an aftermarket radio in a car. A great deal of them though used to ride tractors on farms or do heavy labour in loud environments (power tools, hammering metal, etc). This is where the real problem is.
Considering that most people spend half their time awake at work and the huge shift in the work environment for most of the population (ie I myself work in an office while my father ran heavy equipment and his father was a farmer) means that our day to day life has acutally become quieter and 'safer' overall. Even in the traditonally noisy fields there are lower maximum allowed noise levels and mandatory hearing protection.
Yes hearing problems are on the rise but only because the 'baby boomers' that had those noisy jobs are getting older and age only compounds things. I expect that in time we will actually see the percentages recede as the 'heavy labour' generation dies off.
Just another point of view
Did the statisticians break down the histories of the 50million sufferers? Had they, one would see that an amazingly minute number of them ever had an aftermarket radio in a car. A great deal of them though used to ride tractors on farms or do heavy labour in loud environments (power tools, hammering metal, etc). This is where the real problem is.
Considering that most people spend half their time awake at work and the huge shift in the work environment for most of the population (ie I myself work in an office while my father ran heavy equipment and his father was a farmer) means that our day to day life has acutally become quieter and 'safer' overall. Even in the traditonally noisy fields there are lower maximum allowed noise levels and mandatory hearing protection.
Yes hearing problems are on the rise but only because the 'baby boomers' that had those noisy jobs are getting older and age only compounds things. I expect that in time we will actually see the percentages recede as the 'heavy labour' generation dies off.
Just another point of view
07-14-2006, 10:38 AM
#8
Hearing damage is a beyatch. It took me 6 months to pass the hearing requirement to the RCMP based solely on my damaged hearing. Not from all my years of car audio but from 37 years of ear infections that have left me with permanently damaged hearing. Currently, fighting an particularily nasty ear infection that started with a ruptured eardrum last August and tinnitus ever since. In one ear only does it ring, and man is it annoying some nights.
07-14-2006, 10:43 AM
#9
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 779
Originally Posted by Dukk
Interesting presentation and for sure hearing damage is nothing to make light of.
Did the statisticians break down the histories of the 50million sufferers? Had they, one would see that an amazingly minute number of them ever had an aftermarket radio in a car. A great deal of them though used to ride tractors on farms or do heavy labour in loud environments (power tools, hammering metal, etc). This is where the real problem is.
Considering that most people spend half their time awake at work and the huge shift in the work environment for most of the population (ie I myself work in an office while my father ran heavy equipment and his father was a farmer) means that our day to day life has acutally become quieter and 'safer' overall. Even in the traditonally noisy fields there are lower maximum allowed noise levels and mandatory hearing protection.
Yes hearing problems are on the rise but only because the 'baby boomers' that had those noisy jobs are getting older and age only compounds things. I expect that in time we will actually see the percentages recede as the 'heavy labour' generation dies off.
Just another point of view
Did the statisticians break down the histories of the 50million sufferers? Had they, one would see that an amazingly minute number of them ever had an aftermarket radio in a car. A great deal of them though used to ride tractors on farms or do heavy labour in loud environments (power tools, hammering metal, etc). This is where the real problem is.
Considering that most people spend half their time awake at work and the huge shift in the work environment for most of the population (ie I myself work in an office while my father ran heavy equipment and his father was a farmer) means that our day to day life has acutally become quieter and 'safer' overall. Even in the traditonally noisy fields there are lower maximum allowed noise levels and mandatory hearing protection.
Yes hearing problems are on the rise but only because the 'baby boomers' that had those noisy jobs are getting older and age only compounds things. I expect that in time we will actually see the percentages recede as the 'heavy labour' generation dies off.
Just another point of view
i was told that it's the higher frequencys that damage our hearing more so than the the lower. i dont know if its true or not
