11/15/2014

Most common tinnitus cause III. - Dangerous decibels

source: freeimages.com
Noise is actually the sound pressure measured in decibels (dB) - who is interested in detailed information can read, for example, more on Wikipedia . The main thing that interests us is that decibels are measured logarithmically. In case of sound pressure it means that for every 3 decibels more it has double the energy. For example, the sound with intensity of 13 decibels two times more "noisier" than the sound with intensity of 10 decibels. Sound intensity 16 dB is 2x louder than the sound intensity 13 dB and up to 4 times louder than the sound of an intensity of 10 dB - etc.

Healthy human ear can usually register sounds for intensity of 0 dB - this is the threshold point. Some extremely sensitive individuals can hear sounds even weaker and theoretically should have gone in the measurement of auditory sensitivity to minus values. Simply, the human ear is extremely sensitive organ and is not designed for prolonged toleration of loud noise.

It's good to remember :

Danger to human hearing begins at around 85 dB. Normal human ear can withstand continuous noise of this intensity without damage for about 8 hours a day. Every 3 dB more, shortens time by half. So e. g. 91 dB is a safe value for only two hours a day, then we should take a rest for the day. Of course it also depends on the sensitivity of a particular individual, someone can endure more, someone less. Noise with an intensity of 130 dB and higher causes hearing damage almost immediately.



 This image will help you get a rough idea about various noise sources:

source: eardefendersforkids.co.uk