Are those earphones damaging your ears? Be Warned

Irene Kisakye crosses the street in a hurry to beat a deadline. She nods in unison to the blasting tunes on her ear-set .At one point she seems so engrossed that nothing else seems to exist outside her music. 

Today, it is not strange to see a person walking along the streets or in a matatu (taxi) with earphones plugged in.Usually, these earphone users shut out the world and enjoy whatever it is they are listening to. In fact, the latest trend is to adorning ear/headsets that come with electronic gadgets like phones, MP3s, ipods etc and somebody will gracefully knock you along the streets without even saying a word of "pole" (Swahili for sorry) simply because they are in the listening world.

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But how safe are your ears with this trend?

Loss of hearing

People who use earphones usually fail to regulate their volumes and many end up emitting sound that even the people around the user can comfortably hear whatever is coming through.

A Harvard Medical School study states that on average, the smaller the ear/headphones, the higher their output levels at any given volume-control setting to the ear. Additional research shows that the tiny “ear bud‘’ style headphones are even more likely to cause hearing loss than larger headsets. This research is confirmed with a similar one from United Kingdom's University of Leicester which states that listening to loud music through headphones could be a recipe for temporary hearing loss

Hearing loss is a slow and painless problem that people don’t really pay much attention to. When they think the volume is low, they keep turning it up even more, which makes the condition worse.

Sound is registered in our ears as a series of vibrations that impact the ear drums. It is then transmitted to the three tiny bones in our ears. These vibrations are sent to the brain, where they are perceived as music, dialogue, a toilet flushing, a car horn beeping, whatever the original sound was.

As a person’s ability to hear is diminished due to damage to the eardrum and these tiny bones, the vibrations that reach the brain aren’t as likely to be recognized as quickly or as easily.

According to Anikka Morgan of Helium Publications; when the volume is more than 50% it damages the eardrum gradually but when a person constantly listens to a high volume, the eardrum eventually pops. Experts warn that listening to loud volumes daily is like steadily poisoning the eardrum.

Sound is measured in decibels (dB). 

The range that is safe for a human’s ears to be under 85 decibels. A flushing toilet ranges from 75 to 85 decibels. Personal stereo systems with ear/headphones can produce sounds as loud as 120 decibels.

On the decibel scale, the smallest audible sound (near total silence) is 0 dB. Here are some common sounds and their decibel ratings: Near total silence (0), whisper (15-30), Moderate rainfall (50), Normal conversation (60), lawnmower (90), crying baby (110), car horn (110), rock concert or a jet engine (120), vuvuzela (127), gunshot or firecracker (140)dBs but distance affects  the intensity of sound — if you are far away, the power is greatly diminished.

All of the ratings above are taken while standing near the source of the sound. Therefore, blasting music from an MP3 player, phone or walkman with volume up to 80% is around 96 decibels. This will produce significant hearing loss, if continued.

Courtesy of Google images

The duration one subjects the ear to high sound also has negative effects. Eight hours of 90-dB sound can cause damage to ears; any exposure to 140-dB sound causes immediate damage (and causes actual pain).

Remedy

Noise-induced hearing loss can occur at any age and is often preventable. Physicians recommend that people take steps to protect their ears against damaging high levels of noise. Tone down the volume levels. It is as simple as adding one plus one. But thanks to the latest technology, there are several new styles of ear phones and ear buds designed to help people turn their music down.

These ear buds are even smaller than the ones for the ipod that will fit into your ears, allowing you to listen to your music at a much lower volume while still getting the same effects.

Parents who wish to monitor the volume their children are listening to on their ear/headphones can make use of the Guardian Wired Headphone, which comes with a Sound Level Monitor (SLM). It has green and red lights so parents can visually monitor listening levels.

A green light indicates a safe listening volume and a red light indicates that the sound is too high - alerting parents that the child may have a hearing problem or is at risk of causing irreversible damage to their ears.

On the market too are earphones that block out ambient sounds and allow one to hear clearer, thus encouraging people to keep their volume sets at a lower number.

Indeed, if you’ve ever left a concert or event with your ears still ringing, you’ve probably done damage to your ears. And while you might not notice immediately, regular, eight-hour-per-day exposure to noises above 85 decibels—the level of some lawn mowers and food blenders

—will cause irreversible hearing loss,

Courtesy of Pixabay

Be warned, save your ears!

For more insights to save your ears.Read this link!