DAMN AMBULANCE SIRENS — Ruining My Ears AND My Car :|

Hi all,

Haven't posted in a while so hope everyone is ok and all T's are suitably behaving themselves in the run up for xmas....

I wondered if anyone wanted to hazard a guess at what db reduction being inside a car provides...I have a standard Vauxhall Astra car. I am thinking maybe 10db of reduction ??...would love to hear anyone else's opinions on that...can't find much help with it online...

The reason I ask is (ok here comes the moaning) DAMN AMBULANCE SIRENS......I was stuck in heavy traffic yesterday on a narrow road, I could hear an ambulance coming and I had half plugs in as I always do when I go out, I covered my ears also and if the ambulance had just gone straight passed I would of coped and that would of been the end of it...however it got stuck in between a large car and a bus only about 2 car lengths back from me and was stuck there for what seemed like an eternity with sirens blasting away mere meters from me....In an attempt to make more room so this damn ambulance could get through I bumped up onto the verge and accelerated forward,all the time holding my ears and not the steering wheel,the result - my new car ended up front end in a bush getting scrapped to hell......

As I went into the bush I realized I had to take one hand off of my ears to stop me driving through the central reservation, so yeah I had to remove my hand to correct the car and at the exact time I had to do this the ambulance was now right next to me, drivers side, outside my window..sirens still on full pelt.............argh

Been doing quite well lately trying to go out more and live a semi normal life, and have even made much progress at shaking off some noise exposures that usually I would worry about...but an 120db ambulance siren next to your drivers window....not good..ears feeling it today, fleeting t keeps coming, ears feel full etc

So just trying to work out in my mind how much db I would of actually been exposed to being that I was inside the car with the windows up...not that it really matters..if damage is done its done..but I would like to know what I am dealing with here in terms of db levels....

if you read all that....congrats and thanks
Rhea x

 

@Rhea

so sorry to hear this. What a crap xmas pressie. Hope your car is ok. If it is scratches from a bush on your car, you can get these out without too much problem using T - cut (on a warmer day!)
How are you feeling now.......has it settled down a bit....thought after all this time and living in noisy UK that your ears would have been far less sensitive by now. Maybe it is the fear of something being dangerous? more than actual damage being done? Pease let me know how you are?

 

Hello there @Rhea ,
sorry to hear that. about that db reduction: not much. 10 or less. as we know we can talk easily to someone inside a car whether there´s a window open or not.

There are nowadays cars that are silent with cabin noise and have acoustic windows and windshields but then we are talking about the likes of S-series MB´s and Range Rovers. For obvious reasons not a choice for every T-sufferer around.
I dont like the sirens at all, no, so i know the feeling. i always cover my ears when an ambulance drives by.

I dont think there´s permanent damage done in your case. I surely hope not. Internet gives decibels 110-120 for the sirens at a distance of some 10 feet/couple of meters.. It´s a lot if you are nearby for a longer period of time.

 

I know how you feel believe me. Of course any non-tinnitus sufferer out there would think what the hell is this person doing and even if you tell someone you have tinnitus they would probably ignore you and tell you that ambulances are supposed to be even louder or something.

 

@Rhea it's very unlikely you had permanent damages. Hope you feel better

 

Yeah apart from the stress I don't think you need to worry. Car windows are quite good at isolating noise plus you had those plugs in.

 

I'm not sure just what the db level is, but I know it is rather high. My problem with sirens (ours are different here in the States) and when I was close to them, I would start to get reverberations with my hearing aids. Which meant I was hearing the siren twice. So, unless you were right next to the ambulance for an extended period of time, I would doubt that you suffered any damage other than the immediate discomfort.

 

Earplugs, windows, limited time hearing the noise. I think everything will settle down.

 

Rhea maybe you can get a set of headphone plugs, if you need to you can quickly put them on and your hands are free.
Obviously this would be handy for this particular incident you had while driving.
Just an idea!
Hope you're ok

 

@Rhea I would definitely take NAC (at least 1200 mg) for a week along with magnesium. It never hurts to be proactive in case you did get damage.

I agree with @valeri about always having ear protection available. I keep my earplugs on me whenever I leave the house. Sometimes, I will rest them in my ears--not inserting them. Sometimes, I will wear them around my neck. Remember, you can't control whatever noise the environment will inflict on you. All you can control is your reaction to it.

BTW, these are the plugs I keep on me at all times:

http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Rese...on-Earplugs/dp/B0044DEESS/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_y​

The light blue ones are for people with smaller ear canals.

 

@jazz

thank you for identifying some plugs for those with smaller ear canals. This is my affliction too - very small ear canals maybe cos i am small too - less than 1.5 metres in height and small boned.
i have been trying to find plugs for smaller ear canals but was not sure if such a thing was even manufactured. Thank you for this

 

Hope it works for you! If not, let us know and maybe we can find a smaller one. But this is the smallest that I know about.

 

Even if someone could accurately tell you the precise level of db's you were exposed to with consideration to your exact model car, it won't tell you whether it caused damage or not.

How do you feel? Do you think something sounds different now?

-Mike

 

Hi @Rhea , Long time no see,

From my 24 years experience with earplugs and T, and with no increase due to any noise.

When I first started wearing plugs, I freaked about every noise that was louder than normal, it took probably 5 years to convince myself, with the help from my partner, that no noise would cause harm to my T or hearing with earplugs inserted.

IMO, it is more of a psychological battle with the brain, especially Tinnitus caused through noise trauma, A real paranoia exists that if noise did it once then noise can make it worse,(which I do believe is the case), and was with me earlier this year, the difference is, with my increase in T level, it was caused with no earplugs inserted.

If you have ear protection, you would have to be consistently exposed to 100 plus decibels for 30 plus minutes at least with earplugs in, even then, that is probably an understatement, their is one famous musician, (can't for the life of me remember who), who wore an earplug in the ear that was continuously exposed to his amp when he played concerts, after years of this he lost hearing in his ear that faced away from the amp,(quite a substantial amount of loss) but the one which was exposed, but plugged, was perfect, with no hearing loss at all!

So I think it's anxiety and paranoia that is the problem Rhea, In a vehicle with the windows up, your ears blocked and with your earplugs in as well, your ears will be fine, believe me, I drive for a living and have been in a similar situation as this one, no noise can hurt you with earplugs plus fingers.

You have to get your mindset changed try to remember when you had no Tinnitus, it's just the same now except you wear earplugs, normal everyday noise is too loud for you and I now, so we have compensated for that with earplugs, so we should be able to carry on like normal, except being more aware and taking the extra step of blocking them as well as plugs.

I hope this helps, I know it took me years to practice what I have just preached but believe me, I haven't lost any hearing whatsoever in 24 years so it must be right!

Thinking of you, Rich

 

Hey I know this is an old post but it's relevant to me since the same thing happened to me today, except that I didn't even have ear plugs. How are you doing lately?

 

stop obsessing over every sound you hear and digging up barely related threads from 2 years ago; it's not doing you any good.

Sirens are not damaging, unless you're actually in an emergency vehicle riding under the running siren for extended periods on a regular basis.

 

I know it might not seem like much being exposed to a siren for a regular person but for me it was quite traumatizing. Both physically in that the sound was so loud and mentally as well. I simply can't just shrug it off like it's nothing.

 

I don't think any of us here are "normal people" in terms of ability to tolerate loud sounds.

I think that you, specifically, are harming yourself with the obsessive rumination, though. Even if you somehow physically damaged yourself from routine noise, dwelling on it at this point isn't useful.

You're right, you can't simply shrug it off, if you could, you wouldn't fall into this thought pattern every three days. So, you can either continue to just walk in circles mentally, in which case you're pretty much guaranteed to be posting another thread like this sometime next week -- or you can try to understand and step out of those circles, probably through some combination of behavioral change (not exposing yourself to loud sounds to begin with) and cognitive change (recognizing the obsessive thinking when it arises, and not pandering to it to the degree where you're trying to find someone who mentioned ambulance noise two years ago).