Look after your ears!

how to enjoy music for the rest of your life.

Many of us enjoy listening to music on our way to work or just relaxing at home. Providing you already have good hearing you will enjoy a wide range of sounds from deep base to rich vocals. Play your music to loud, to long for to often and you could be damaging your hearing.

Our ability to hear a wide range of sounds peaks in our early teens and then starts to die away naturally. Why this is the case we do not know. Our ears are important, a world without sound can be a difficult place to live. A more common complaint is where a range of frequencies are missing. Such people are said to be "Tone Deaf".

Im no expert in these things but audiologists and other hearing experts have been issuing warnings that improper use of iPods (and other personal stereos) can dramatically heighten risk of hearing loss, particularly in young people. So what can you do?

When you notice a difference between loud sounds and quiet ones, your ears are perceiving changes in sound pressure level. Intensity (or volume) is measured in decibels (dB). Zero (0) dB is the softest sound that can be heard. Normal conversation is around 40dB to 60dB, a whisper around 30dB. A rock concert can average between 110 and 120 dB. Pain from hearing is subjective. Levels below 125 dB may be painful to some individuals. The sound from a jet plane is approximately 140 dB.

Decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale. Each increase of 10 on the scale represents a tenfold increase in loudness. 20 dB is 10 times as loud as 10 dB; 30 dB is 100 times louder than 10 dB, and so on. If you owned a 100W home audio system, and you wanted to buy one that was twice as loud, you would need to buy a 400W system!

It is not just loud noises that make you deaf. The duration of noise is a factor to. The maximum exposure time for unprotected ears per day is 8 hours at 90 dB according to The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. Whats more,for every 5 dB increase in volume, the maximum exposure time is cut in half.

• 95 dB - Maximum exposure time 4 hours
• 100 dB - Maximum exposure time 2 hours
• 110 dB - Maximum exposure time 30 min
• 120 dB - Maximum exposure time 7.5 min

If you experience any of the following.

• Ringing or buzzing in the ears
• Slight muffling of sounds
• Difficulty in understanding speech. You can hear all the words, but you can't understand them.
• Difficulty in hearing conversation in groups of people when there is background noise
• Difficulty in hearing conversation in groups of people in rooms with poor acoustics.

don't wait to seek help. Have your hearing checked by an audiologist, or have your ears examined by an ear specialist. Always turn down the volume to a safe level. Take regular breaks to give your ears a chance to recover.

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