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OUR WORLD HAS never been louder. Cities are full of loud engines and angry motorists making good use of their horns. MP3 players and smartphones are widespread so our music or radio can follow us anywhere.
How loud is our world, though? A way to measure sound is by using the decibel. It is used for many things and you may recognise it from Hi-Fi systems.
Tyres are a nice noise example, as the EU now state that tyres require noise emission stickers on them at the point of sale. We sonically interact with tyres very regularly. Every time a vehicle passes, tyre noise can drown out the music you could be listening to with your headphones. The tyres on my car have a rating of about 71dB. This means that, if walking along a busy road where all the cars have the same tyres as mine, there would roughly be a 71dB ‘noise floor’. The noise floor is a term used to describe how loud the background noise is. Airports and libraries have very high and low noise floors, respectively.
When listening to music, we like it to be able to hear it. We like it loud and we love bass, so we tend to turn it up that bit extra. With the tyre example, we now have a 71dB noise floor to compete with, so up goes the volume of our music player to drown the other noise out.
The ear does its best to cope, it desensitises itself to loud environments to protect itself from damage. Our eyes adjust to dark and bright spaces. That said, our eyes can give pain when we look at something very bright, so we know the eyes cannot cope and we can do something about it.
Our ears do not give out the same cry for help. The ear tells us of damage only after it has been done and after the noise finishes. This is what causes the ‘ringing’ in your ears, which you may have experienced after clubs and concerts. Another sign that your ears are not happy with you is when you leave the loud place and your ears feel stuffed.
The EU and its United States counterpart both recognise the problems with noise. They describe concept of the daily doses of noise. This means, in the workplace, there is only so long you should work in that environment before the employer takes action by way of earplugs, ear defenders etc. At 85dB, the dose is eight hours according to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
The first table shows some examples of what makes noise in our world. The second table on the right shows what the daily dose of various sound levels is recommended to be. It should be noted that every 3dB you add to the volume the daily dose is halved. For every 3dB you take away from the volume the daily dose is doubled.
Take a look at nightclubs, they are measured at around 110dB which means less than two minutes of exposure is likely to do some damage to your hearing. A 119dB nightclub is less than 14 seconds! Headphones can easily be very loud, as well – I’ve measured some mid-range in-ear headphones at 95dB to 110dB when playing music at around ¾ to full volume.
Going back to the tyre noise example from earlier, you will have to boost your music over the noise floor of 71dB, maybe by 3 or 6 dB. These listening levels are creeping towards the red. And, of course, there is a lot more going on in a city than just looking a tyre noise alone. Cities are generally observed around the 85dB mark.
We can easily age ourselves by 10, 20 years or even more in terms of hearing health by just going to night clubs regularly. This damage is permanent and will only be added to by our natural ageing process. Our hearing system is extremely sensitive and delicate. It operates using the smallest bones in our body.
The ringing in your ears, called temporary tinnitus, may not go away the next time you get it. Permanent tinnitus caused by noise is becoming more common. In the UK, an estimated 1 in 10 people have mild tinnitus, and 1 in 6 people are estimated to have a form of hearing loss or damage which could then be aggravated to produce tinnitus. Tinnitus is the perception of a noise with no actual source, so in essence it sounds like it’s inside your head.
It is very easy to say that it won’t happen to us, but it can. Sadly, even ear infections can cause tinnitus. An especially unfair cause is to experience a sudden bang from something like a jackhammer as you pass a building site.
As we age, our hearing naturally deteriorates and the hearing loss gets closer to the frequencies important for speech recognition. This deterioration isn’t accompanied by signs of damage, it is just aging. By exposing ourselves to loud sounds we are speeding up this process, but at least we have warning signs to work off.
Ear plugs, the soft foam ones, are great at taking the edge off. In fact they make it easier to listen to people talking to you in loud pubs and clubs as they cut out a lot of the high pitched noise getting in the way of speech sounds and they don’t damage your enjoyment of the music by keeping the bass intact.
We are one of the first generations to make use of the digital revolution for music. Media players are everywhere, much more widespread than the Walkman ever was. Music is getting louder, too. I feel we have to think about how natural it is to listen to music on headphones in loud places. I’m not saying we should stop, I love music too much for that, but we simply cannot beat the loud environments we experience by raising the volume. All we will do is hurt ourselves in the long run.
This YouTube clip is a short documentary on tinnitus which has recently been doing the rounds on Twitter. It is well worth the watch.
Thank you for reading and happy hearing!
Treasure it.
Uploaded by Tom Chittenden
Further Information and Support
Loud appliances such as lawnmowers, hoovers and pressure washers should have noise emission stickers on them. Please take a look at what dB level they produce and take action accordingly. When in doubt, use ear plugs. Hardware stores sell pairs for as little as 50cent. Nightclubs generally have them for free.
Tinnitus and hearing loss can in some cases seriously deteriorate your quality of life. If you are worried about your hearing or have hearing problems, please visit the below websites for support and advice on your next step. Please beware of people selling cures for tinnitus, no cure for tinnitus currently exists.
Robert Kelly is a recording and mix engineer from Dublin. A graduate of Ballyfermot College of Further Education in Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast, he is currently a postgraduate student in audio production at the University of Salford, Manchester. Robert has a passion for education and hearing health. He is aiming to raise the awareness of the dangers associated with the loud modern world and to promote safe music production practices. Follow Robert on Twitter @RobKellySound or visit his blog Rob Kelly Sound.
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Enda and his friends must be having their arms twisted by developers, you’d wonder why they’d contest the court ruling otherwise. Looks like the brown envelopes would have to be to returned.
Probably want to avoid wasting taxpayer’s money demolishing buildings that didn’t exist in 1916 to the state they were in in 1916 … i.e non-existent.
This baffles me. The entire lot of them attempted to use the 1916 commemoration ceremonies in order to squeeze every ounce of personal and political gain they could from them, yet have no scruples turning around and appealing a decision like this. It’s barfaced hypocrisy, I know we should be used to it by now but it never fails to disgust me. I’d have more respect for them if they admitted how much of a backhander they’re getting for this, not much, but more.
Some of the buildings may be modern, but the preservation of the street scape is about allowing the area to still be read in the way it would have sat in 1916. The wider battlefield site is very important to the story of 1916, and erasing the lane ways erases that history.
The woman’s a parasite. The past of this country means nothing to that woman.
Why would it to a member of the orange order who’s members historically have done their best to erode Irish history
Is that renowned ‘Republican’ party of FF going to shore up this farce of a government in the face of this wanton attempt to destroy this countries true Republican heritage????
They don’t mind wasting taxpayers money appealing a decision that suits their friends. Fcuk off Enda and Heather
Eh, didn’t FG specifically say at the time that they WOULD NOT appeal the high court decision?
Are you surprised with anything that shower of chancers would do
It’s only part of our history and you can’t sell that
What an incompetent woman. Imagine a minister for arts and heritage challenging this? I wonder would she be as quick and stern to challenge the courts if it was an orange parade or bonfire in question?
Hey citizens wakey ! wakey ! It may be of huge cultural, social and historic significance but in modern day Ireland where everything has a price but no value, Moore Street and environs is just another bit of real estate whose selling price will bear no relationship whatsoever to the immense profits that await private developers following a knockdown sale by FG to their friends who in turn will do more damage than the Brits in 1916 and then sell the “glass cages” to those with more money than sense . Yes, I do remember Dublin in the rare ould times !
Groups, expert commissions, councils, enquires, blah blah blah.
So many ways to give jobs to the faithful who lost their seats.
Developers rule,history dose not matter to Enda,heather, n co..disgusting behaviour
The true nature of the Fine Gael/Blueshirt Party is clear from their behaviour in commemorating the occupation forces in the same breath as they commemorated the patriots of 1916. We are a sovereign nation, led by a crew that would gladly put the country back under the English yoke. In order to destroy any genuine republican feelings within the general populace they are waging a slow, long war of attrition on our culture, traditions, heritage and history. They do not see themselves as ‘Western Brits’ but as potential subjects of the Queen. Former Taoiseach, John Bruton, has even warped our history in his own mind to such an extent that he believes that the benevolent, democratic English Occupation Authorities would have ‘granted’ us Home Rule, if we had the patience to wait patiently, cap-in-hand, for it. His behaviour during the visit of the Colonel-in-Chief of the 1st Parachute Regiment, (of Bloody Sunday infamy) left us in no doubt where his political fantasies and hopes lie. Shameless poltroons the lot of them!
Time to join the cause. If there is a protest movement count me in.
Humphreys is on a personal crusade, mad to get the bulldozers in and plough over Moore St.
Poor Heather…not sharp enough to know shes just a patsy for the big boys with the big money….this is what she will be remembered for….this,her ineptitude and her gross remuneration.
Disgusting
The only heritage FG are interested in is money.
Hold on, so the government are trying to have a national heritage site declared not that? No doubt so they can knock it and sell it to some developer who will build substandard apartments. I hope someone is taking notes for when it’s time to vote. This is madness!!
Like New Sinn Fein, some of these buildings didn’t even exist in 1916.
The High court says different.
Alpha. There is no new or old Sinn Fein.there is just Sinn Fein.
“Like New Sinn Fein, some of these buildings didn’t even exist in 1916.”
New (adjective)
‘of recent origin, production, purchase, etc.; having but lately come or been brought into being:
a new book.’
Yes, I’d imagine ‘new’ lots of stuff didn’t exist 100 years ago.
Good lad.
New Sinn Fein originates in the early 1970s when Gerry Adams established his splinter group.
Nothing to do with the original Sinn Fein who didn’t take part in The Rising.
Hardly news is it?
Alpha. Could you please tell me which political party on this island is called new Sinn Fein.now that would be news?
Sinn Fein Nua
ray.farrelly Not for trolling purposes there isn’t.
Alpha. So are you saying there is a political party called Sinn Fein Nua. Some proof would be appreciated.
ray.farrely alpha isn’t interested, he’s trying to refocus the issue away from FG being shown up for what they are.
Dave. I know I just like showing him up for the fool he is.
Typical FGhoul traitors
If it means work for people in DCC then they will keep going until they get what they want at the taxpayers expense. They sold all the council houses for half nothing so they wouldn’t have to deal with maintaining them. Now we are paying the price for that.
It’s time there was a “Battle of Leinster House” and when it’s over I propose it is turned to rubble.
If those blueshirts want to make history their own they would want to be careful as it may not be to their liking !!!!!.
All it needs to change the way this country is going is for the people to say “We have had enough ” ,
I HAVE HAD ENOUGH !!!!!
Oh please minister let this one go and don’t take it personally the high Court ruling. Here’s a little idea put the money on appealing this into housing in Dublin for all those little kids who are holed up in a hotel room tonight instead of a home.
Reminds me of this story I saw last week. Debtor EZ nations heritage and national assets being sold off and privatised in liquidation firesale.
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2016/06/04/historic-tombs-of-venizelos-transferred-to-privatization-fund-acropolis-next/
“The tomb of one of the most famous Greek politicians Eleftherios Venizelos, the “maker of modern Greece” has been transferred to the new Privatization Fund allegedly in order to be able to be properly ‘utilized’ – see sold.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos passed a legislation amendment on Thursday according to which all properties belonging to Greek Tourism Organization (GTO/EOT) will be transferred to the new Privatization super Fund that will sale them to interested investors.”
It’s really disgusting how low Europe has sunk. How much longer are people going to stand by and let this happen? Why are the government so worried about this precedent? What other sites of historical significance do they intend to flog?
“a consultative group on Moore Street with an independent chair will be established in the coming weeks” No No not another political shirk. Cowards.
MacMenamin to the rescue…maybe….JK lol. Only buzzin….
She can go and F@#K
Do to Moore St as they did to Nelson’s column.
Nelsons column was an eyesore. Dubliners hated it because it caused serious traffic disruptions, in fact nobody ever wanted it, the public fund raising project to erect the monument failed miserably because no one contributed to it. Good riddance.
I think the government should be chasing that scab who closed Clerys.
She must be driven out of business entirely as she is a cancer on this country.
Heather Humphreys.
Need I say more.
More brown envelopes
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