Can Balloon Popping Cause Hearing Damage?

Oh boy, I’ll cut right to the chase.

I was walking on the street when around 5 to 10 meters behind me a couple kids started popping McDonalds balloons. In total it was 7 or 8 pops.

My hands were full so I started walking faster. I had some silicon earplugs in at the time, Alpine party plugs (SNR19).

I’ve seen that balloons can be over 160dB at their loudest.

Could this cause hearing damage? I know it sounds ridiculous but balloons are no joke when it comes to volume.

 

I'm no expert but the fact that you were outdoors and wearing earplugs tells me you're probably OK.

 

Balloons are especially dangerous when they pop in closed spaces right by the ear (e.g., a car).

Since you were 5 meters away, you were outside, and you had earplugs in, the likelihood that you will get a permanent T spike as a result of this exposure seems to be low.

 

It doesn't. I remember reading about at least three people who got permanent spikes after being exposed to popping balloons. But their circumstances were different from your circumstances (e.g., one was in a car when it happened).

 

At 30 feet away, even without ear plugs I wouldn't have thought so.

 

At that distance, outside, I really doubt would be any issue even without ear protection. Anything permanent would be very unlikely, but that's my opinion of course.

160dB is a bit excessive. Definitely not for a standard balloon. That would cause instant pain. I've had a balloon pop in the very back of my car whilst I was driving (wasn't aware it was in the car) and it did not cause pain. I wasn't wearing ear pro and had hyperacusis too. It was a really sh*t experience, but didn't lead to permanent T worsening. It did however contribute to further middle ear sensitivities, such as cramping tensor tympani, that became a chronic recurrence for a long time. But I had other noise incidences that contributed too that though i.e. just that morning I had been tested for LDLs by a clueless audiologist. I took the usual antioxidants and other supplements to negate, as much as possible, any oxidative stress. I think also I may have possibly taken prednisolone, or maybe it was for another incident around that time. I could only get 50mg max total, so very little anyway.

I do hate balloons now, except for water balloons.

 

You should be fine.

 

A balloon popped about 15 feet away from me today - my ears feel different but there's been no percept change in my tinnitus. It's still as low as it was when I woke up. Within an hour I took 1200mg NAC. Would I typically know right away if there was damage?

Fcukin tinnitus...

 

Balloons are so loud. I was in a store a few minutes ago that was having a sale and there were a few balloons in the aisles. Didn't think anything of it at all as I was shopping. I was in a few minutes before the place was closing and one of the employees walked by and started popping the balloons, around around 3-4 in the span of a few seconds. I was probably only about 3-4m away and it really startled me because it sounded like gunshots. Asked the employee about it and he nonchalantly said he was just trying to clean up. Can't tell if my spike is just a spike or something that could be worse.

Google brings back results saying a balloon pop can be upwards of 168 dB and that's scary. I'm not sure how much different that would be for say a half to 3/4 inflated balloon vs. a full one. A study I found a link for claims even popping a balloon with a pin measures around 155 dB.

Would you guys be worried if this happened to you?

 

Reading online it says it can be loud as a gun wtf.

 

That's what bothers me. It's one of those things where I'm sure at some point as a kid that I, and maybe even many of you, probably popped or stepped on a few balloons even at close range at some point. It also used to be fun throwing darts at underinflated balloons at the carnival.

But the study I read earlier is making me nervous:



Popping a balloon with a pin at 0 meters away was 154.99 dB according to this study. I'm having trouble getting anywhere while using 0 in the online calculators and the range is pretty odd and I'm seeing 134.99 m from a meter away if using 154.99 dB @0.1m or around 138 dB if guessing that 0.5 m is around 145 dB. In other words, I'm confused.

For the 154.99 dB reading: the balloon would have to pretty much be right on your ear and is the absolute peak.

In my case... I'm not sure if that would equate to around 126 - 129 dB or if I'm just using the numbers incorrectly. I'm not sure of the size of the balloon, how inflated it was, etc. All I know is it was really loud.

And 3-4 quick "pops," I have no idea how long that would be in duration.

The NIOSH chart only allows up to 1 second of noise exposure at 127 dB. In comparison, the old OSHA chart claims up to 1 minute and 53 seconds. It's pretty scary how really loud sounds are so unforgiving in the amount of time you can endure since that's obviously not enough time to react like say a bar where you'll have some time to adjust and figure out a game plan.

I definitely worry about permanent damage from these types of shorter exposures to potentially very loud noises. Fire and emergency horns and sirens have usually been my biggest 100 dB+ sound enemy and now balloons are entering that category.

 

From a physical POV, it depends on the difference in pressure (how much the balloon is inflated). Going by that, I agree it could be as loud as a gunshot.