The dark side of sound
Sound is an important sense to many, though it is not necessary to function in society and live a wonderful and prosperous life. However, for as wonderful as sound is it can be harmful too. Many of us know that listening to loud music too often can result in hearing loss. This type of hearing loss can result from a few things including damage to the cochlea or the ear drum. Knowing which decibels of sounds can increase your chances of hearing loss is a great first step to taking the correct preventive measures.
The loudness of sound is measured in decibels. Breathing measures at about 10 decibels while a hair dryer measures at about 70. Prolonged exposure to anything at 75 or more can potentially result in hearing loss. Naturally the louder the sound the sooner it can damage your hearing. For example, at 130 you will start to experience pain and at a mere 30 decibels higher you will have an instant perforation (which is a hole or a series of holes) of the eardrum.
Sound at a certain level can kill you. To understand this, we first have to realize two things. One, human hearing lies on a spectrum, we cannot hear everything and once sound exceeds a certain volume (past the point where holes start to form in our eardrums) we won’t hear anything, but that doesn’t mean the sound is not there. And two, Sound is vibrations that travel through the air. This means sound has the capacity to impact more than our ears. These vibrations, if amplified enough, can result in organ damage.
Sound is nothing more than the passing of energy. Theoretically, if a sound is loud enough, we won’t hear it (or if we do it won’t be for very long), but the energy from those sound waves can cause damage to internal organs which can result in things like trouble breathing or death. Don’t worry the changes of death by sound is near zero at best. Just worry about protecting your hearing as best you can and you’ll be fine.