HOW LOUD IS TOO LOUD? Noise exposure: all you need to know Community Paediatric Team

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1160 IH_January 2021 Copyright © 2021 InHealth Limited What is Noise Exposure? How Loud is Too Loud? Tips for Safe Listening Everyday we experience in our These sounds can damage sensitive The extent of damage to your • Lower the volume on devices. environment such as the TV, radio or structures in the inner ear and depends on 3 factors: Some music devices have parental traffic. Normally, these sounds are at potentially cause noise-induced hearing controls to set volume control limits. 1. Volume: How loud the is safe levels which does not damage our loss (NIHL). The term ‘noise exposure’ As a rule, personal listening devices hearing. But sounds can be harmful refers to when a person is exposed to 2. Distance: How close you are to should be used at no more than half- when they are too loud, even for a brief potentially harmful levels of noise for the sound volume. time, or when they are both loud and any duration of time. 3. Time: The length of time you are • Even some childrens’ toys can be long-lasting. exposed to the sound excessively loud. When purchasing Sound is measured in a unit called infant toys, try to choose those with a How Noise Affects the Ear . For context, normal volume control. Young children often like to hold noisy toys near to their All sounds enter the ear as vibrations Excessive noise exposure – such conversation is roughly 60-70 decibels, faces. which travel down the ear canal, as at a concert, or even a vacuum cleaner is approximately through the eardrum and the middle through – can damage 75 decibels, and a jet engine is 140 • Move away from the noise. ear bones which sit behind. From there, these hair cells. decibels. Encourage your child not to sit the vibrations reach the cochlea (the or stand right in front of concert Once these hair cells become The World Health Organisation advises hearing organ) and signals are sent off speakers, such as at school discos. damaged, they cannot regenerate. that the maximum noise exposure for to the brain to let us know that we have Prolonged noise exposure can cause children in recreational noise (such as • Allow your child to wear ear heard a sound. Noise Induced (NIHL). through headphones or discos) is 80 protectors, such as or The cochlea is a very complex Sometimes this can develop years after decibels over an 8 hour period. earmuffs at loud events, such as organ, and inside are tiny hair cells exposure of excessive noise. This type So a child listening to music through firework displays. which vibrate in response to sound. of hearing loss cannot be reversed. headphones for a few hours a day is at risk of damaging their hearing if the volume is consistently set too high. Pinna Stapes Semicircular canals Incus Vestibule Remember – Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is usually gradual and Malleus painless. If we look after our hearing when we are young, we set ourselves Auditory nerve up for better hearing as we get older.

Ear canal Cochlea

Apex

Base Ear drum

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