Women enjoying a summer concert with hearing protection.

Summer is finally here, and you’re ready for all those things we’ve been looking forward to: trips to the beach, relaxing by the swimming pool, and injured hearing? You may find yourself in external situations or exposed to other loud noises this summer that can be hidden risks to your ears. Any sounds over 80 decibels could damage your ears, while permanent loss of hearing can take hold in swimming pools or other bodies of water. You need to take preventative measures and be mindful of your environment in order to keep your hearing safe this summer. Here are six of the summer’s hidden hearing hazards.

When You Travel to Concerts, Wear Ear Protection

The summer season is concert time, but even if attend an outdoor venue, you still should protect your hearing. 90 decibels is inside the danger zone for ear injury and concerts reach this level even when you’re at outdoor venues. That’s why it’s always a smart plan to use earplugs whether you’re seeing a concert indoors or outdoors. You can still hear the sounds with earplugs it’s just dampened slightly. If you’re going to a concert with young children, consider getting them a heavy duty pair of earmuffs because kids have more sensitive hearing than adults.

Fireworks Are More Than Just Loud

Honestly, there are a lot of reasons to avoid fireworks in the summer. We’re not talking about the professional 4th of July displays, we mean the backyard fireworks that trigger many of incidents throughout the summer season. As well as causing hand traumas, loss of vision, and home fires, personal fireworks can also result in serious harm to your ears since they’re known to achieve decibel levels of 155. This 4th of July, leave the fireworks to the professionals and enjoy the display from a protected and sound distance.

Mowers Can Cause Hearing Loss

If you’re serious about your lawn, it’s likely that you’re out there each week on your mower, using your edger, and trimming your bushes. But that muffled feeling in your ears is a sign that your ears have taken damage. That’s because the constant noise from your lawn tools impact your hearing over time. If you’ve ever observed landscapers, you probably have noticed them utilizing ear protection, you should take a hint from them and use earplugs or earmuffs next time you take care of your yard to make certain your ears doesn’t get injured.

Here’s How to Protect Your Ears When You Take a Swim

Millions of people suffer from swimmer’s ear every summer, which occurs when bacteria-laden water gets trapped inside your ear canal. Swelling and painful earaches result when the bacteria infects the ear. It’s not exclusively lakes and rivers that contain these bacteria, they can sometimes be found in pools and hot tubs if they are not cleaned and treated properly. To be safe, when swimming in your pool, use special swimmers earplugs and keep the chemical balance correct to lessen the possibility of getting swimmers ear.

Boats and Other Water Sports

If you love the water, summertime is beach and boating time for you. But, jet ski and boat engines are often noisy,they can get up to over 100 decibels. Continual exposure to that kind of noise for a period of around 15 minutes can bring about irreversible hearing damage. In this case also, using a set of disposable foam earplugs is a smart plan.

Car Races Can Injure Your Ears

It doesn’t matter what type of auto racing you enjoy, stock cars, midgets, motorcycles, drag racing, Formula 1. If you go to a lot of auto-races this year, they all present a danger. 120 dB is inside of the danger zone for hearing damage and many races go well above this. As mentioned earlier, your kids should wear muffs whereas you should use earplugs at the very least. Otherwise, you might not get to enjoy the sound of those engines in the future.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.