Your ears process all types of noise 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but this doesn’t mean they’re invincible. If you expose your ears to too much noise, you could experience permanent hearing loss.

When sounds are excessively loud, it doesn’t take long for noise-induced hearing loss to develop. In fact, it’s possible to experience immediate hearing loss if you’re close to a particularly loud sound, such as a gunshot.

However, you don’t have to be in an unusual environment to develop noise-induced hearing loss. There are a variety of seemingly mundane situations that could inadvertently be damaging your ears. To ensure you’re taking the right steps to protect your ears, take a look at the everyday activities that could harm your hearing ability:

Using headphones

Millions of people use headphones for hours a day, without realizing that they could be causing long-term damage to their hearing. Although most manufacturers implement a maximum volume on their products, this is often still too loud to be used safely.

Some well-known headphone manufacturers have their maximum volume set to 100-110 decibels, which is around the same as a rock concert. When you realize just how loud the volume is in comparison to other sounds, it’s easy to see why using headphones can have a major impact on your hearing function.

You don’t need to give up using headphones altogether, but it is important to use them at a safe volume. By choosing headphones that have a safe maximum volume setting or manually reducing the volume, you can ensure that reduce the risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss.

Similarly, if you have children, you’ll want to ensure their headphones don’t exceed recommended volume levels. Children’s ears can be damaged by lower volumes than adults, so don’t assume that the standard maximum volume settings will be enough to protect them.

Going to work

Depending on your working environment, you could be exposed to particularly loud sounds for a large portion of the day. If you work with power tools or heavy machinery, for example, you’ll certainly need to use ear protection to prevent hearing loss. However, it isn’t just noticeably loud working environments that can have an impact on your hearing function.

If you work as a hairdresser, the volume of hairdryers could cause noise-induced hearing loss. Hairdryers often create noise that reaches 85-100 decibels, which exceeds the safe limit. Similarly, noise levels in open-plan office environments have been recorded at 90 decibels, which can also put your hearing at risk.

You may not be able to give up work, but you can certainly take steps to ensure you don’t experience harm while you’re performing your duties. By visiting your audiologist, you can access custom ear protection to help prevent noise-induced hearing loss. Remember – your employer has a duty of care towards you, so don’t hesitate to ask them how they plan to monitor noise exposure and increase workplace safety.

Household chores

Chores may not be your favorite activity, but you’ll like them even less when you realize the impact they could be having on your hearing. It’s not unusual for vacuum cleaners to reach 70 decibels or higher, which designates them as loud. If your vacuum reaches 80 decibels or more, it could be causing gradual noise-induced hearing loss after just two hours of use.

Similarly, a lawnmower can easily exceed 90 decibels, which means it can certainly damage your hearing. Appliances or equipment which produces noise at 100 decibels can cause hearing damage in 15 minutes, so it’s essential to take this into account before you undertake any household chores.

By choosing products that have been designed to emit lower volume sounds, you can be confident that you’re able to maintain your property without putting yourself at risk of noise-induced hearing loss. Alternatively, using ear protection while completing these tasks can help to prevent damage from occurring.

Preventing noise-induced hearing loss

It isn’t always easy to avoid noisy environments, particularly as so many day-to-day activities exceed safe volumes. If you’re unable to reduce the volume of sounds in your environment, you can prevent hearing loss by using ear protection.

Earplugs or ear defenders can reduce the level of noise that reaches your eardrum and, therefore, prevent it from being damaged. An audiologist can help you to select appropriate ear protection for all environments and ensure your earplugs or defenders offer adequate protection. With custom ear protection, you can successfully minimize noise exposure and reduce the risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss.

To learn more or to access custom ear protection now, contact EarTech Audiology now at (866) 464-1008.