The number of children seeking help from hospitals’ otolaryngology department is increasing: whistling, ringing in the ears, partial hearing loss; The problem of excessive exposure to sound and noise sources continues to be underestimated.
A single rock concert or a single game in the stadium could be enough to cause permanent hearing damage: a new line of studies supports it according to which a single exposure to loud, but not necessarily deafening, noises can kill some terminations nerve fibers that connect the inner ear to the brain.
This is the message of a new line of research: “A single exposure to loud but not deafening noise could be enough to cause irreparable damage to the nerves of the auditory system.”
Previously it was believed that the only undesirable effect of noise exposure, like those of a disco night, was the annoying but temporary sensation of having the ears covered.
The idea was that it would take years, if not decades, of trauma to the sensitive niches of the inner ear to kill the tiny hair cells, where the vibrations of the sound waves are converted into electrical signals and then processed within the brain. . Only the death of hair cells is believed to compromise the ability to hear clearly in the confusion of noise during the day.
The study in mice, guinea pigs and chinchillas has confirmed what has been said previously, that is, a single exposure to a loud sound can kill some endings of the nerve fibers that connect the inner ear to the brain.
According to an American investigation that already has 60 dB (decibels: the unit of measurement of sound pressure) can induce psychic consequences. At 85 dB the danger threshold begins, at 95 decibels you are at risk of damage if you listen to music for more than 4 hours, at 105 if you stand in front of the speakers for more than an hour, but if the decibels are 115, 15 minutes are enough, and 120 the immediate pain threshold is exceeded with permanent damage. Well, the decibels reach 110 in the disco. Rock, house or electronic music are the biggest killers of the ear. They cause the hole effect that, at high frequencies, weakens hearing.
In summary, the price to pay for listening to music at full volume can be really expensive.
Worse still, you can only make a long horn, a jackhammer that beats continuously, a firecracker that explodes at close range, an airplane engine taking off.
Ludwig Van Beethoven did not go to the disco, but because of the music he became completely deaf: it is the cells of the eyelashes, species of ultra-sensitive microphones, that face increasingly heavy injuries when the ear is besieged for a long time by vibrations too high and when the damage is done there is nothing you can do to regenerate your hearing.
Galeotta is not just the disco. Risk can also lurk in the headphones (if not padded) or in the headphones of an I-pod, which reach 105-110 decibels; p25er listening to music in the office through headphones: be careful!
HERE IS WHAT THE WHO RECOMMENDS:
To prevent a pleasant hobby, such as listening to music, from being dangerous to our health, it is sufficient to take simple precautions. The slogan is to keep the decibels under control. In fact, mp3 players and smartphones are often used at very high volumes for long periods of time, when instead they should not exceed 60 minutes a day. Listening to music with headphones at a volume of 95 decibels, even for half an hour a day, means irreparably damaging your hearing in a couple of years.
The higher the volume, the faster the damage will appear and its extension. So listening times considered safe vary with decibels:
– 8 hours at 85 decibels (noise in the passenger compartment of a car);
– 2 and a half hours at 90dB (meter);
– 47 minutes at 95dB, a quarter of an hour at 100dB (train in transit);
– 4 minutes at 105 dB (an mp3 player with the maximum volume);
– 28 seconds at 115dB (a rock concert);
– 9 seconds at 120 dB (a siren).
If facility managers don’t follow the limits set by the noise law, the advice is to stay away from cash registers.
