Yes, in more ways than one! Prolonged listening to music over 85 decibels loud -- about the sound level of busy city traffic -- can cause permanent noise-induced hearing loss. Though it takes about 8 hours to harm your ears at 85 decibels, crank the tunes up to 110 decibels, and it only takes a minute and a half to endanger your hearing.
You might be surprised to know that normal speaking is around 60 decibels, a baby crying is about 110, and an airplane taking off is around 140. Car stereos can blast music at levels of 140 decibels and above. Human ears adjust to sound over time, so you may not realize that the music you are playing is loud enough to be harmful.
Besides the damage you're doing to your ears, a university studyfound that listening to loud noise in cars decreases reaction time and decision-making ability, cutting off the vital fraction of a second it takes to avoid an accident. So booming music while cruising in your car increases your chances of getting into a wreck.
Some concerned citizens want to prevent people from playing loudthumpin' music in their cars. But there are those who love listening to car-shaking music. The most extreme bass-lovers participate indecibel drag-racing.
THE HEALTH FILES By Tim Christie The Register-Guard
"It's very special, because, as you can see - the numbers all go to 11. Right across the board."
- Spinal Tap
guitarist Nigel Tufnel, describing the band's
extra-loud amplifiers.
After introducing the band Rascal Flatts at this summer's Lane County Fair, Tracy Berry, one of the morning DJs on New Country 93, listened to most of the show, then ducked out to meet her husband at Civic Stadium for the end of an Emeralds' game.
When she got out of her car at the ballpark, about a mile west of the fairgrounds, it was as if she never left.
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"I could clearly hear the lyrics to `Praying for Daylight,' ' one of the band's hit songs, she said, and then the lead singer telling the crowd: "Thanks so much, Eugene, we had a great time. We're Rascal Flatts."
Which is why Berry, a seasoned concertgoer
, always carries earplugs when she goes to live shows.
"When I mention it, people look at me like I'm crazy," she said. "I have people tell me it's not a good concert if your ears don't ring."
For music lovers, nothing beats the thrill and spectacle of a concert and the physical sensation of live music well-played. But when bands and their sound engineers crank up the volume - if not to 11, then to 10 - the audience can suffer, even if they don't realize it right away.
Billy Martin knows. He has noise-induced hearing loss in both ears, giving him the hearing of a 75-year-old at age 50. He blames listening to loud music, racing motorcycles and shooting guns for his condition.
Now Martin studies hearing loss at the Oregon Hearing Research Center, part of Oregon Health & Science University, where he serves as director of the Tinnitus
Clinic. Tinnitus - a chronic ringing of the ears - is one of the consequences of exposure to loud, long noise.
Martin is involved with a statewide public health campaign called Dangerous Decibels, sponsored by OHSU and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
. Its aim is to reduce hearing loss, and its advice for people confronted with loud noise is simple: Turn it down, move away or protect your ears.
Martin offers a simple rule of thumb: If you're in a setting where you have to raise your voice to be understood, you're probably damaging your hearing.
It's not just boomers like Martin developing hearing problems. About 5.2 million young Americans, aged 6 to 19, have hearing loss directly related to noise exposure, according to
a 2001 study published in the journal Pediatrics.
The study's authors concluded that American children are "being exposed to excessive amounts of hazardous levels of noise, and children's hearing
