We are surrounded by noise in our everyday existence. From power tools and traffic to personal audio devices, the world is more cacophonous than ever. Such loud conditions can compromise your hearing if you fail to be cautious. As October marks National Protect Your Hearing Month, it serves as an ideal period to review how to keep safe this important sense.
How to preserve your hearing: 8 key methods
Luckily, a few effortless measures exist that allow you to insulate your hearing from common environmental sounds. The following are eight major recommendations for maintaining your hearing health.
1. Become familiar with noise levels and their impact
The initial action for staving off auditory damage is to determine when a sound level becomes hazardous. Different sounds produce varying decibel (dB) levels, and extended exposure can lead to permanent hearing loss. A fast look is below:
- Sounds like heavy traffic or lawn mowers (85–90 dB) can be tolerated safely for a maximum of 2 hours.
- Exposure to 100 dB sounds, such as those from construction equipment or motorcycles, risks hearing damage in only 15 minutes.
- Over 110 dB: Fireworks, gunshots, explosions – Instant damage can happen after just a few seconds.
Taking a proactive approach to noise recognition can help you avoid environments that are hazardous to your ears.
2. Check sound levels yourself
Are you interested in discovering the true loudness of your environment? You can easily determine it using your smartphone. Several no-cost sound meter apps are accessible, allowing you to check noise levels around you. The key to getting reliable data is to take the measurement from the distance you usually maintain from the origin of the sound.
Regular use of this monitoring tool can enhance your understanding of your surroundings, facilitating smarter choices about hearing protection.
3. Keep the volume down on your devices
A significant way people harm their hearing over time is by using their devices at loud volume settings. Despite their practicality, headphones and earbuds often mask certain risks. For example, many headphones can surpass 100 dB, leading to hearing loss in just 15 minutes.
Today, over a billion young people are at risk of hearing loss from using earbuds at high volumes. To protect your ears, never turn your earbuds above 50% of their maximum volume. The need to increase the volume past this point to hear indicates that you may already have some hearing damage.
4. Never try to use music to drown out loud noise
For those who live in loud areas or work in noisy settings, the urge to use headphones to overpower the ambient sound can be strong. But cranking up the volume to overpower outside noise is harmful. Instead, consider using noise-canceling headphones, which allow you to enjoy your music or podcasts at a much lower, less hazardous volume. If you don’t have noise-canceling headphones, earplugs can be an effective alternative.
5. When in noisy environments, use earplugs
For anyone regularly attending loud environments—whether at concerts, sporting events, or while operating heavy machinery—earplugs are a must. They are small, affordable, and easy to carry, making them a straightforward but effective tool for hearing protection.
Individuals who require earplugs often can obtain custom-fitted ones, which give superior protection and comfort compared to standard types. You should certainly use them in all environments that are loud.
6. Follow safety recomendations at work
When your work involves being near loud machinery or equipment, you must diligently follow all safety procedures for hearing protection. Some workplaces may downplay the risks, but those who claim “it’s not that loud” may already have considerable hearing loss and don’t realize the current noise levels. You should protect your hearing by using the necessary protective gear and abiding by the safety rules.
7. Move further away from loud noise
Sometimes the best way to protect your ears is simply to move away from the noise source. The advantage of distance is that it decreases the sound’s intensity before it reaches your ears, thus helping to minimize the risk of harm. As an illustration, a noise source at 110 dB will be reduced to roughly 100 dB if you stand 20 feet away—a level that allows for up to 15 minutes of safe exposure.
The example of fireworks is instructive. While a firework explosion registers at 150 dB, if you are close to where it launches, the sound can still surpass 120 dB, which can cause instant harm. You can still enjoy the display at a safer level, below 100 dB, by being 2,000 feet away (the length of about five football fields).
8. Existing hearing loss needs to be addressed promptly
Any existing hearing loss demands prompt action to keep it from advancing. Auditory impairment is not self-reversing; it will progress. Statistics show that approximately 1 out of 10 adults in the 55-to-64 age group have considerable hearing loss, and this percentage jumps in later years.
When initial signs of hearing loss are ignored, it only causes the impairment to progress faster. Usually, individuals delay seeking professional assistance by a full 7 years. By consulting a hearing specialist sooner and exploring treatments such as hearing aids, you significantly improve the potential for maintaining your existing hearing.
Act now for better hearing
Take advantage of National Protect Your Hearing Month as a chance to make hearing health a top concern. These simple actions can have a significant impact, regardless of whether you’re seeking to avert future harm or you’ve already experienced some hearing loss.
Schedule a hearing test today and take charge of your hearing health before it’s too late.
