126 dB without hearing protection is instant, irreversible hearing damage. Even with really good hearing protection, exposure for longer than an hour would cause permanent hearing damage.
For anyone who doesn’t know, not only can you lose your hearing from quick bursts of loud sound, you can also lose your hearing from prolonged exposure to ambient sounds which are less loud. The dB scale is logarithmic, which means that a 10dB increase is usually considered to be twice as loud. This gets complicated quickly, but that’s the rule of thumb.
Some hearing loss is temporary. The sound may come back to normal volumes in a couple days. In most cases, at least some amount of that hearing loss is permanent. These are OSHA’s guidelines on how long you can be exposed to a given dB level without hearing protection:
- 90 dB - 8 hours
- 92dB - 6 hours
- 95dB - 4 hours
- 97dB - 3 hours
- 100dB - 2 hours
- 102dB - 1.5 hours
- 105dB - 1 hour
- 110dB - 30 minutes
- 115dB - 15 minutes
- Anything above 115 dB requires hearing protection, even if employees are only going to be exposed to it for a brief time
And frankly, OSHA’s levels are lenient. They focus on preventing permanent damage. If you’re listening to Spotify at full volume (~100dB) for longer than 4 minutes, you’re probably experiencing some form of hearing damage. If you’re listening at volume for more than 2 hours a day, you’re experiencing permanent hearing damage.
Yeah, people massively underestimate how bad hearing damage is in our daily lives. Headphones and cars alone account for so much hearing loss. Modern life is just so fucking loud. We’re taught to brush our teeth. We’re taught to not stare into the sun or read in the dark. No one taught me about hearing protection until I was a teenager
