1. What is the most damaging to hearing - loud, sudden noises or regular, extended exposure to loud sounds?
Loud, sudden noises can cause a ruptured eardrum, rupture of the tiny bones in the middle ear, rupture of a membrane at the entrance to the inner ear and disturbance of the inner ear fluids, as well as the stability of the hair cells. The reason is that the ear’s natural protective mechanism does not have a chance to react quickly enough to sudden, intense impact noise.

2. Is it true that 50% of all recreational shooters may suffer some degree of hearing loss?
Yes. Education of the recreational shooter about hearing protection has not been the best, available protection has not been either comfortable or really as effective as it should be.

3. What levels are damaging?
According to the OSHA, 90dB is safe listening for an 8 hour day and this standard regulates factories. Anything above that is considered damaging if exposure exceeds the safe time calculated. For example, 95 dB would be safe for 4 hours, 100 dB would be safe for 2 hours and so on. For every 5 dB increase you must decrease exposure by half the time. The intensity of a .38 special is 156 dB and a 44 magnum is 164 dB. A shotgun blast at 140 dB would only be safe for less than 30 seconds.

4. Doesn’t the ear have its own protective function against damage from loud sound?
As I mentioned before, it does. The middle ear muscles that suspend the middle ear bones will contract in response to loud sound and will stiffen and reduce the movement of the middle ear bones and the flexibility of the eardrum. This represents about a 25dB decrease in the potential for damage. But, the problem is it is not sustainable over time due to the natural fatigueability of our muscles.

5. Does a person’s ear create more earwax if he or she is exposed to loud sound?
I’ve been working with musicians for about 12 years and in that time, I have heard that time and again. There isn’t really any hard core scientific proof that I’ve seen about this. I do have folks who have their monitor to one side and that side may have more wax. Again, no real proof . Just anecdotal evidence. It still wouldn’t protect it enough in the presence of really loud sound.

6. What are some examples of sounds that can damage your hearing?
A jet plane taking off is about 150 dB, a gun blast may be 140 dB, a jack hammer is 130dB, and I measured a Titan’s/Bronco’s game on the South End of the field at 132 dB when they played “Who Let the Dogs Out.”

7. How long can you safely listen to a gun shot as compared to safely listening to a jack hammer?
You could safely listen to a gun shot of 140dB for less than 30 seconds and you could listen to the jack hammer for about a minute.

8. Do people notice hearing loss immediately after being exposed to loud sound?
They could notice a cottony, stuffy sensation and/or ringing in their ears. These sensations may go away after several minutes, hours or a day or more. These symptoms may be temporary but would persist if the exposure continued.

9. What are some of the signs of hearing damage and can it just be temporary?
Yes, it can be temporary stuffiness, fullness or ringing…the name for it is Temporary Threshold Shift. Repeated Temporary Threshold Shift results in Permanent Threshold Shift. Signs of hearing damage are asking for repititons, hearing the word but not understanding it, missing the endings of words or punchlines, hearing men better than women, hearing better in one ear than the other, hearing better one on one than in a crowd.

10. Are there people who are more susceptible to noise induced hearing loss than others?
Did you know that smokers are twice as likely to sustain noise induced hearing loss as non-smokers? Reduced oxygen in the blood is the likely culprit. And folks who are on chemotherapy drugs are at higher risk for hearing loss and much higher risk for noise induced hearing loss, as are folks on other ototoxic drugs like the myacins.

11. How common is hearing loss and what are some factors contributing to that?
Hearing loss occurs in 1 of every 4 Americans. Noise is not the only cause of loss. Disease, infection, trauma, heredity and age also factor in.

12. If a person is older, won’t he/she automatically have a hearing loss and so the noise exposure level won’t matter?
Not everyone sustains hearing loss due to age. I have tested 90 year olds with hearing better than mine. But it is a myth to think that if you already have a hearing loss that noise cannot do more damage. There are 2 parts to listening….hearing and understanding. Hearing relates to volume and understanding relates to distortion. The hearing part can sustain just so much damage before the understanding part becomes affected. If the damage is great enough and the distortion is measured say below 40%, then help is even more difficult to manage.

13. Is the older ear tougher because it’s been exposed longer and the loud sound doesn’t hurt it anymore?
Ears do not get tougher if repeatedly damaged over years. The loss just continues to gradually worsen.

Hearing Protection Products

1. What is out there to help protect from the damaging volume?
Hearing protection devices range from simple foam inserts to electronic plugs and monitors.

The HPDs, as we call them, can reduce sound at different levels and are rated as in an NRR or Noise Reduction Rating. There are earplugs that reduce the sound equally over the pitch range so you can reduce volume and maintain understanding….musicians use those. There are non-electronic earplugs that just reduce volume up to about 42 dB in the highs….skeet shooters have ordered these. Then there are hunters who need amplification at times and compression (or rapid-onset sound reduction) for the actual blast. Those are the products that have gained in popularity and effectiveness. In parallel with the hearing aid industry, these have actually just recently become available in digital circuits which are a lot faster and a lot more effective. They are available in the universal behind the ear style with the option of a custom earplug. They are also available at any distributor in a custom ear level device. There are Sound Scopes and Walker’s Game Ear which we distribute, ESP which is another type of electronic HPD.

2. Other than hearing protection, what is the advantage of having 2 units instead of just 1?
Your brain interprets the message sent by your ears and so your ears should be sending the same message to the brain. In order to determine the direction a sound comes from and to understand, you need the sound to be presented to each ear at close to the same time, pitch and volume. Obviously, hunters need to know the direction of the oncoming target.

3. When would you only use one?
In the case of a dead ear, where there is no measureable hearing. If you have hearing, you should protect it. That is the strongest case I can make for using two. I would also advise anyone with an active draining ear to seek the advice of a medical professional before putting anything in the ear for an extended period of time. Also, I would advise anyone who suspects that they hear better in one ear than the other and who has not been seen by an Audiologist or physician to seek a hearing test and consultation.

4. If a person only decided to use one, which ear would he/she put it in?
In all seriousness? The ear you want to save. Otherwise, if you’re still intent on just getting one it would be the ear that is up…..a right handed shotgun shooter would put the instrument in the left ear and a left handed shotgun shooter would put the instrument in the right ear.

5. What is the Noise Reduction Rating of the typical electronic shooter’s plug?
The Walker’s Game Ear which we distribute run in the neighborhood of 29dB.

6. Are they analog or digital?
Walker’s and ESP are available in digital models. The maximum output is 114 dB and the gain is up to 52dB. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) circuit was programmed through a computer and has at least two channels that are controlled independently of the others to control a certain range of pitches, therefore eliminating the need for external frequency adjustments. What sets this circuit apart when compared to analog technology is that it processes the sound coming into the hearing instrument digitally, thus giving the user the clearest sound signal possible with virtually no distortion.

7. Can you use them if you have a hearing loss?
Absolutely. The analog versions are available with frequency tuners on them. Remember, if you have a hearing loss then you want to protect.

8. How often do I change the batteries?
Battery life is around 160 hours.