Noise

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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Prevention and Risk Factors

Learn More

• Related Issues

See, Play and Learn

• Health Check Tools

Research

• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Find an Expert

For You

• Children
• Teenagers
• Patient Handouts

Summary

Noise is all around you, from televisions and radios to lawn mowers and washing machines. Normally, you hear these sounds at safe levels that don't affect hearing. But sounds that are too loud or loud sounds over a long time are harmful. They can damage sensitive structures of the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss.

More than 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous sound levels on a regular basis. Hazardous sound levels are louder than 80 decibels. That's not as loud as traffic on a busy street. Listening to loud music, especially on headphones, is a common cause of noise-induced hearing loss. You can protect your hearing by:

• Keeping the volume down when listening to music
• Wearing earplugs when using loud equipment

NIH: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Start Here

• About Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• How Does Noise Damage Your Hearing? (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)
• How Loud is Too Loud? (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)
• Noise Pollution (Environmental Protection Agency)
• Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) Also in Spanish

Prevention and Risk Factors

• Preventing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Related Issues

• Impact on Health (Center for Hearing and Communication)
• Impact on Quality of Life (Center for Hearing and Communication)
• Occupational Noise Exposure (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

Health Check Tools

• Sound Level Meter App (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Noise (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Reducing Night-Time Sound Levels Through Bed-Level Quiet ICU Bundle: A Randomised...
• Article: Effect of noise isolation during general anaesthesia on the incidence of...
• Article: The efficacy of pink noise and earplugs for mitigating sleep disruption...
• Noise -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Also in Spanish
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Children

• Can Loud Music Hurt My Ears? (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• How Noise Affects Children (American Academy of Pediatrics)

Teenagers

• Listen Up! Protect Your Hearing (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Patient Handouts

• Acoustic trauma (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Hearing loss and music (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish