Carrera 4S. Clio 172. M5
I would like to share this with you in the hope that at least one person who reads it will benefit by doing so.
We have all heard of people both in the public eye and not, who have had problems with drink and drugs. Rehab seems to be the catchy word for the process of helping them overcome these problems, and provided they stay clean, recover.
As any medico will tell you, the body has a great ability to recover and repair itself given the chance, and provided of course the damage is not terminal.
With drink / drugs that may be the case. Your liver for example can regenerate quite quickly given a break from tipping alcohol into it.
However your hearing is one of the bodies failures when it comes to self repair.
Hearing damage is accumulative, progressive and non-reversible.
So what has this got to do with owning a car and frequenting this board ?
Well, in many cases, not a lot. But for those who like loud music in your cars,
everything.
Sound pressure levels in cars are often in excess of those the HSE would allow you to work in, and certainly are capable of producing hearing loss and tinnitus.
The current SPL cars are producing 165 db. That’s louder than a shuttle launch. The measurement of sound, “ decibel “ is not fully appreciated by some. 3db is an effective doubling of the level, so 100 db is ‘kin loud, 103 db is twice as loud and 106 db is twice as loud as 103 and so on.
So if the limit in the workplace is 70 db without ear defenders, what the hell are you doing to your hearing in a car with even a modest 100 db sound system or a club with 130+ db pumping away.
At 20ish years old this may not seem to you to present itself as a problem, slight headaches are commonly a result of over indulgence and may fade after a few hours the following day. What you wont be so aware of is degradation of your hearing after sustained exposure to loud music, and that slight hissing or ringing tone in your head (Tinnitus).
How many people do you know (be honest) have an automatic response such as “what” or “pardon” when you say something to them, or simply don’t hear you at all?
This may seem like a bit of a stupid example, but those people are already well on the way to being deaf, and remember unlike the liver example, its non-reversible.
I mention this partly because I worked in the car audio industry for 15 years and I know lots of people from that time who now suffer with hearing loss.
I was laughed at when I told them at the time to take it easy and keep the levels reasonable and also took the precaution of getting signed disclaimers before handing cars back to customers. (Something I learn in America, land of the Ferrari owning Lawyer) and partly, I was reminded by Sir Stirling Moss who has recently had to succumb to having hearing aids fitted due to the many years he has spent in racing cars without wearing earplugs like the modern racing drivers.
You have been warned, I said YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
We have all heard of people both in the public eye and not, who have had problems with drink and drugs. Rehab seems to be the catchy word for the process of helping them overcome these problems, and provided they stay clean, recover.
As any medico will tell you, the body has a great ability to recover and repair itself given the chance, and provided of course the damage is not terminal.
With drink / drugs that may be the case. Your liver for example can regenerate quite quickly given a break from tipping alcohol into it.
However your hearing is one of the bodies failures when it comes to self repair.
Hearing damage is accumulative, progressive and non-reversible.
So what has this got to do with owning a car and frequenting this board ?
Well, in many cases, not a lot. But for those who like loud music in your cars,
everything.
Sound pressure levels in cars are often in excess of those the HSE would allow you to work in, and certainly are capable of producing hearing loss and tinnitus.
The current SPL cars are producing 165 db. That’s louder than a shuttle launch. The measurement of sound, “ decibel “ is not fully appreciated by some. 3db is an effective doubling of the level, so 100 db is ‘kin loud, 103 db is twice as loud and 106 db is twice as loud as 103 and so on.
So if the limit in the workplace is 70 db without ear defenders, what the hell are you doing to your hearing in a car with even a modest 100 db sound system or a club with 130+ db pumping away.
At 20ish years old this may not seem to you to present itself as a problem, slight headaches are commonly a result of over indulgence and may fade after a few hours the following day. What you wont be so aware of is degradation of your hearing after sustained exposure to loud music, and that slight hissing or ringing tone in your head (Tinnitus).
How many people do you know (be honest) have an automatic response such as “what” or “pardon” when you say something to them, or simply don’t hear you at all?
This may seem like a bit of a stupid example, but those people are already well on the way to being deaf, and remember unlike the liver example, its non-reversible.
I mention this partly because I worked in the car audio industry for 15 years and I know lots of people from that time who now suffer with hearing loss.
I was laughed at when I told them at the time to take it easy and keep the levels reasonable and also took the precaution of getting signed disclaimers before handing cars back to customers. (Something I learn in America, land of the Ferrari owning Lawyer) and partly, I was reminded by Sir Stirling Moss who has recently had to succumb to having hearing aids fitted due to the many years he has spent in racing cars without wearing earplugs like the modern racing drivers.
You have been warned, I said YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
