OpinionIs a love of live music wrecking your hearing? Don’t let it.
Steve Wexler is founder of the data visualization consultancy Data Revelations.
One night not long ago, I went to hear a good band at a local bar. I couldn’t stay past five songs.
The volume was deafening, and I mean that literally — as in “if I stay here for more than 15 minutes without earplugs, I might cause permanent damage to my hearing.” I know this because the sound meter on my phone showed sustained levels of 100 decibels, with a peak of 110. That’s enough to damage the delicate hair cells in the inner ear. And this was not an especially loud band. It was typical of local bar band with singer, keyboard, drums, bass and guitar.
Not so long ago, that bar I saw the band in would have been filled with smoke. No longer. A generation or two ago, many in attendance might have thought little of driving home without their seat belts on, or even under the influence of alcohol. Thankfully, today such deeply dangerous behaviors are far less common.
So why don’t we protect our ears the same way?
As for many people, live music is one of the pleasures of my life. My training in college and graduate school was in music; I’ve played in dozens of groups and arranged for big bands and Broadway shows. But unlike many of my music-loving friends, I don’t have hearing loss or tinnitus.
Why am I so “lucky”? I’ve taken measures to protect myself. And I hope after reading this, you will, too.
Suppose you’re sitting in a noisy restaurant. The sound pressure level (or volume) could be around 85 decibels (dB). That band I heard was consistently clocking in at 100 dB. So what’s the big deal? One hundred dB is only about 20 percent more, isn’t it?
No. Decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, so going from 85 dB to 100 dB is a 3,100 percent jump.
Imagine that a four-piece band is playing at the noisy restaurant level of 85 dB. Say the guitarist has the dial on the amplifier set to five.
Of course, you’re not going to see a 128-piece band in a bar. But your ears might be contending with the equivalent when the guitarist in the four-piece band turns the knob up and all the other band members follow suit.
If you find this logarithmic measurement confusing, rest assured this is not some plot by scientists but an attempt to deal with values that span a large range. This is the same problem we run into with the Richter scale, where an 8.2 magnitude earthquake is 100 times bigger than a 6.2 earthquake.
Let’s see what happens when we use micropascals, which use a linear scale, to measure sound. For most humans, comparing such small and large numbers is difficult. Here’s how it looks:
It’s not just the volume level itself that can lead to permanent hearing loss, however. Other factors include the exposure on a given day, the cumulative exposure over years and the frequency (pitch) of the noise.
According to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), it’s safe to be exposed to 85 dBA, or 85 decibels in a standard range of pitches, for up to eight hours over a 24-hour period, but for 100 dBA, the time limit plummets to 15 minutes. Indeed, for every 3 dBA increase, the safe exposure time falls by half.
According to Arun K. Gadre, clinical professor of otology and neurotology at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and an ear and skull base surgeon at the Geisinger Medical Center, “any level starting at 85 dB and perhaps even lower can cause hearing loss over time. If you come out of a concert or bar with your ears ringing, there’s a good chance you’ve damaged the delicate outer hair cells which reside inside the cochlea.”
So, should loud music be banned? I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. If people want to enjoy what I think is “too loud” music, that’s their choice.
But how about requiring every venue to have a large, easy-to-read decibel meter? This would be akin to requiring nutritional information be printed on food packages. At least the audience would know that the music is at a level that can damage their hearing.
And in addition to pretzels and beer nuts, venues could put out bowls of cheap earplugs, which can attenuate the decibel level by 20 dB. That can be the difference between listening for a few minutes and a few hours.
Our changed norms around smoke and drunken driving were reinforced by law. But they began with increasing social awareness and a broad-based desire for greater safety. No one needs to wait for legislation to begin to protect themselves.
Here’s what you can do:
Limit your exposure time. Not sure if a band or DJ is “too loud”? You can download an app for your phone that will help you gauge the sounds you are hearing. I use Decibel X, but you can download a free app from NIOSH.
Buy a good set of earplugs. I use plugs from Earpeace, which decrease the sound pressure level while maintaining sound quality. But any plug is better than no plug, so by all means use those inexpensive squishy ones. Think of plugs as being sunscreen for your hearing.
Or simply ask the band or the venue to turn down the volume (though you might have to shout to be heard).
I’m in my 60s, but even after so much live music, I have the hearing of someone half my age. Some of this is “good genes,” but a lot comes from my using earplugs as soon as the music gets loud.
And every now and then, I’m delighted to encounter a band that is playing at a reasonable volume level. The music just sounds so much better that way. A good band or DJ shouldn’t need to damage your hearing to make you want to dance.
About this story
Graphics and development by Amanda Shendruk and Sergio Peçanha. Additional development by Yan Wu.