On the Relation Between Exposure to Sound and Auditory Performance

This paper presents the results of 10 years of work on the relation between exposure to sound and its effect on hearing. More than ten thousand persons were examined. Highlights of the results are: (a) a person's everyday exposure to sound can have a beneficial effect on hearing such as reducing the effect of aging and lowering the susceptibility to damage; (b) women are more susceptible to low-frequency noise than men; (c) impulsive sound is particularly dangerous to hearing; (d) three different resonances appear to cause most damage after being exposed to intense impulsive sound; and (e) there is a strong relation between the structure of impulsive sound and damage to hearing. With regard to the effect of the peak sound pressure from airbag deployment, driver airbags are less damaging to the ears than firearms because of masking effects.