Way back in the fifties (before my time too!) parents feared that their teenage children would go deaf listening to rock and roll music. And don’t you know that mammies are always right! Several generations on and neighbours still bang on walls or floors; parents still shout at their little darlings to ‘turn that racket down’.

We now know that it’s not just how loud sound is but how long we listen to it for that can damage our hearing. This is certainly a challenge in the music industry.

The Physical Agents Regulations set the following exposure limits for noise: upper exposure level of 85dBA with a limit exposure of 87dBA.

But it’s not just rock and roll that causes problems; the word Bodhrán (traditional Irish drum) actually means to deafen; bagpipes were once used as an instrument of war and a pipe band can register up to 122dBA. A rock concert is typically around 130dBA and classical music such as Wagner’s The Ring Cycle and Mahler’s 9th Symphony register at 112dBA and 120dBA respectively.

Every second person we meet is tuned into their personal music systems many which can register 112bDA; the equivalent of listening to a chainsaw. A common mistake people make is pumping up the volume to drown out background noise when the thing to do would be to invest in better earphones which will cancel background noise allowing you to hear the music at lower volumes. Apple have already developed the software for music systems which will calculate how long you have listened to music and lower the volume accordingly and France has imposed a 100 decibel limit on personal music systems being sold there.

And just to give you some perspective on those noise levels…

140 dBA Immediate danger to health e.g. Gunshot, Jet engine at take off

125 dBA Pain threshold e.g. Air raid siren

120 dBA Risk of hearing damage after 7.5 mins e.g. Sandblasting

115 dBA Risk of hearing damage after 1 hr e.g. Helicopter

100 dBA Risk of hearing damage after 2hrs e.g. Chain saw, headphones

95 dBA Risk of hearing damage after 4hrs eg Motorcycle

That could mean that many concerts should be limited to 10 – 15 minutes long!

Given that a professional musician can play for 5 to 10 hours per day it’s perhaps not surprising that so many of them now wear customised or moulded earplugs.

And as the employer now has an obligation to try to eliminate or reduce the risk at source you may also have noticed that those in the orchestra seated in front of the brass sections have acoustic shields behind them and many drummers are now placed in booths. How the performers are physically arranged on stage can help to reduce the risk to hearing, having tiered performance areas can help dramatically as can taking the orchestra from the pits.

Sound engineers have a significant role to play; by clever positioning of amps and speakers they can help to reduce the risk to musicians. Too late for those who have already entered the Hard of Hearing hall of fame; Roger Daltry, Phil Collins and Eric Clapton.

‘I was a major glutton for volume, ‘Gotta feel it, gotta hear it’
sooner or later you’re going to pay the reaper.’ Mick Fleetwood.

You may have noticed many of today’s performers and musicians will now wear customised or moulded earplugs whilst on stage, they will cut out a lot of background noise and filter sound to a safer level whilst still retaining the purity of sound required.

The onus is on employers to protect employees from the risk and ‘others who may be affected’, many venues now have sound limiters on site which will kill the power to musicians once thresholds have been breached. DJ’s use head phones or sound booths and speakers are moved away from the bar areas.

Did you know that Motley Crue (heavy metal band) were sued so often for hearing damage at concerts that they became the first band to sell hearing protection at their gigs.

So maybe at the end of a concert; when we’re all crying out for more we should be asking for our ENCORE…UNPLUGGED.