The Hindu Business Line : How ears end up getting victimised all the time

DADAR-Chennai Express touches Pune past midnight and, in most coaches, people who boarded the train in Mumbai are already fast asleep. It takes a few minutes for the new passengers to settle down with their baggage and wait for the ticket examiner to make his appearance.

Meanwhile, a bunch of sales guys begin, as is usual in their line of work, a boisterous discussion of this customer and that dealer, good orders and bad deals. The noise carries itself through the whole compartment, possibly figuring in the dreams of some of those deep in slumber as some unexplained cacophony.

This is nothing unusual, very much like mosquito bites and off-key notes in a concert hall. It is quite possible that people take offence if you were to tell them to reduce the decibel level, as if you were curbing their freedom of speech. But the fact is that we often get into believing that being noisy is being lively, and that happiness is directly proportional to the level of sound generated. Add to that the myth that you are vocal when you are open and transparent, so the more you are heard the less conceited you are. Or that not being chatty is to wallow in one's own woes and become an introvert bore.

At work, we not only learn to accommodate the noises that the office gadgets - such as the phone, printer, AC, computer fan and so on - make but also tolerate the bouts of noise explosions that occur in cubicles, spasmodically and, as some claim, therapeutically.

On road, we have but our backs turned to those who honk like nervous wrecks. And at home you sit through a sedate news program but when there is the commercial break you lung for the remote because the ad would suddenly blare through the speakers at twice the volume you had set.

"It's no secret that today's society exposes us all to a lot of noise," observes www.hearnet.com. "Exposure to excessively loud levels of noise can't always be avoided, but we can do things to prevent damage to our ears." Which is why, perhaps, Lata Mangeshkar plugs her ears when a pop group runs riot.

Brien McCarty's article titled "The Importance of Hearing Protection" featured on www.activebass.com gives the numbers: "The decibel level of a normal conversation is about 60. A subway is 90 decibels. A dance club is about 110. A jackhammer is 140 decibels. So is a rock concert. 140 decibels." High decibels are addictive for some; but they are not additive but multipliers. "Twenty decibels is 10 times louder than 10 decibels, 30 decibels are 100 times louder than 10 and so on. So, with a difference of 80 decibels between normal conversation and a rock concert, that would make a rock concert of 140 decibels 10 million times louder than normal conversation."

A recommendation from OSHA, which is not the name of a godman but the abbreviation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US, states that the maximum decibel exposure for unprotected ears in 8 hours is 90 decibels. On the ascent, exposure time is cut by fifty per cent for every 5-decibel increase.

"That means, that the maximum exposure for 140 decibels is 28 seconds," explains McCarty. Too much noise can cause irreversible inner ear damage; and for those who are affected, it may first appear to be temporary, with hearing returning to normalcy after several hours or days. "But, if exposure occurs repeatedly the ears will eventually lose their ability to bounce back, resulting in permanent hearing degeneration," warns www.hearnet.com.

"What's more, many people don't realise that their increasing communication problems are caused by their own inability to clearly understand others, leading to misdirected irritability, anger and frustration."

"Do you know someone who talks too loud? Do they talk loud in quiet areas?" These are some of the questions that www.sinceresuggesions.com asks. If you can spare a few dollars, "Sincere Suggestions will send a politely written letter telling them of your concern... not meant to offend or embarrass them, but to inform them of something they might not be aware of."

Tell them, oh lord, they know not they are too loud, you may like to pray loud and clear. But they say gods are known to respond to soft pleadings too.

EeAndOhEe@hotmail.com

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