Did I Make Another Mistake? :( Fireworks

For my job I am sometimes in places I'd rather not be.

Yesterday was one of those days, I had to film a -huge- company party, which ended in fireworks. I came prepared and had my premolds with the highest protection -28 dB during the day and at the fireworks I switched to full closed + muffs. But hell, it was loud, I measured more than 110 dB on the loud bangs with my iPhone app.

I had a really bad night and woke up with a slight new high tone/peak in my one ear, while my other ear was a bit louder when I was going to sleep.

I only slept for 3 hours. So this could also be a reason.

But needless to say I am scared and feel stupid for not running away.
Thought my earplugs and muffs would be enough?

Any insights anyone?

 

Consider talking to your doctor or ENT about prednisone. Maybe HBOT treatment. There's also transtympanic injections to discuss with your doctor. NAC may help @1200 mg a day. This is all stuff that you should talk to a doctor about. There's also a chance it will just settle down and your T will go back to baseline. If your high tone is high pitch, treatments mentioned are less effective.

 

Thanks for your comment, what just can't understand if this did any damage, I was extremely wel protected. There were like 14 loud bangs in total.

 

If you are wearing both combined it will add 3 to 8 db NRR over wearing one protection. This is based on a logarrithic scale.

 

I found this article: The protection wearing of both protections is and an added 5 db NRR in this link. But ear plugs vary with or without proper placement. Also if you have hair under your noise blocking headphones, that can made a difference. So I like to use 3-8 db NRR instead of 5 as being a constant value. Click on selection and use in blue.

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/shipyard/ship_breaking/ppe/general_ppe/hearing_protection.html#Use of Hearing Protection

 

Sounds like a fair amount of protection... may be a temporary spike, or maybe not... sorry this happened in either case.

Is it possible for you to make it known to your employment in advance that you can not film loud events?

Have you considered it may be a temporary spike from switching with hearing protection so much? Taking things in/out on/off of the ear can be a bit fatiguing on the ears as well.

 

Went to the pub last night, was loudush, went out to get breaks, as my plugs kept on falling out however this morning it's higher...hardly ever go out but the kids really wanted to go as another family invited us. This morning am obviously asking myself the same questions as u but at the end of the day u can't become a recluse and u have to earn a living.
The fact that u didn't sleep is probably a big contributor, anxiety a little too as you're expecting it to be louder...plus it may be a little louder as it can react to noises...so far mine has always gone back to baseline...if you're really concerned then prednisone might be an option.

 

I also agree with @SilverSpiral sometimes I think it's actually the plugs acting as suction that make my ears worse given that I have some ETD.

 

Yeah, ETD, TMJ, and various somatic elements relating to tinnitus may be affected by earplugs, but also sometimes taking them in/out is simply quite loud, and it sounds like Jurgen may have been making some quick switches, though premolds are usually not as loud to take out/put in as foamies or silicon plugs.

Headsets of course can be loud if you don't gently place them over your ears, or remove them gently.

Sorry I don't remember @JurgenG but how many permanent increases have you had versus temporary spikes? You do deal with temporary spikes quite frequently right?

 

Also don't feel stupid for not running away @Jurgen G, you were doing your job and wearing protection. Something thousands of other people, many of them probably also with tinnitus also do daily.

 

I won't use foam earplugs. Foam earplugs can cause tinnitus by the earplugs causing earwax to plug the outer ear. It blocks the normal flow of ear wax outwards. Foam earplugs can also cause damage to the temporomandibular joint. Foam earplugs can cause otitis externa.

 

@JurgenG
I don't think you made mistake. But you should really consider if your job is damaging your hears more and more.
Do you have H?
I think that even if you had used more protection, you would have experienced the same. We have to take care of ours ears

 

You did not sleep well last night, right? I would not discredit how much impact that could have had, especially combined with anxiety about a spike.

I got a health tracker a month ago and it monitors my sleep at nights. I've noticed a very clear pattern between how I sleep (deep, REM, light and awake times) versus my tinnitus.

 

The mistake would have been to attend the fireworks without protection.
I think you're becoming obsessed over sound levels and thus on your tinnitus problem and that can't be good regarding how you feel towards it.

 

Interesting. So 5db would equate to a reduction of 50% in loudness, right?

 

What kind of plugs are you using? I've never had an earplug fall out.

 

Wouldn't wax in the ear simply amplify the perceived loudness of tinnitus and not actually cause/worsen it? Or could it exacerbate tinnitus via the occlusion effect?

 

Hi Jurgen. I think you'really good. It sounds like a minor spike which might very well be affected by lack of sleep.

One thing to mention is that earplugs and earmuffs do not protect as well from lower frequency sounds, although the combination is more effective. You might consider using 33db foam plugs with 31 dB Peltor X5A earmuffs. Proper fit of earplugs is essential.

 

Some time back I had an ear lavage by a motivated if misguided GP and the wax volume was astounding, and perversely, the tinnitus afterward was louder and beautifully (!) clear. Mine has always been one-sided and heard externally, not internally so I don't know if there was something in the manner of perception. I certainly didn't get the loudness effect you refer to from wax, although you'd think that's how it would work.

(felt like I was being waterboarded by the unsupervised apprentice at the CIA).

 

Hey guys!
A genuine thank you everyone for the great support and insights! thanks!

The problem I had with this "spike" that it felt differently as before, with the new tone and so one.
All the stories of people getting new tones here flashed by me. I felt like I was in my first month again..

I've been to the GP yesterday evening and asked for predisone, as to be sure.
Things are much better today, probably unrelated to the predisone though.

About the job, I actually mentioned my problem and that's why I only had to film the "quiter" things of the event, and placed myself as far as possible from the firework. So I actually tried the best I could. I didn't quite expect fireworks or the noise they make. (Once you get T you only start to realise how loud the world was, even though I've got to lose that notion as well..)
But on the other hand it might very well be unrelated to the fireworks, it was a long day, no sleep, a lot of stress because of it. And quite a noisy day (with plugs).
And as someone said, I did swith my plugs a lot.

My steps I am going to take now.
-Investing in the highest rated earmuffs technical possible.
-But mainly: lose the stress (not sure how to yet, but as today is better I am sure this will help, as your comments did!)



My remaining questions:
-The bangs are what you could consider low tones, I guess?
Thus you are less protected by earmuffs and plugs?
How less? Just trying to understand these mechanisms.

-I also notice that my auditory system actually gains up after wearing earplugs for a while.
Is this what they call the effect of overprotecting?
I mean by this, if I wear earplugs, after a while everything starts to feel louder again, like they are not working anymore. I sometimes move my earplug a little out to make sure they are well fitted.
My point is: I have a feeling that my ears "gain up" when wearing them. And thus it's really hard to judge wether something is too loud..

-Does anyone know if drinking alcohol during perdisone is a bad idea? Or it doesn't really matter?


Again thanks for the comments!

 

I have the same problem with wearing the ear plugs, not sure if it's the suction effect or some form of auditory gain but they don't work well at all for me.

 

Hi @JurgenG, I hope you are feeling better. If you had earplugs inserted properly, and earmuffs, I think you will be fine. For those of us that developed tinnitus from noise exposure/trauma, there is a great fear that since T was caused by sound, it will get worse with sound. That may be true, but if you have as much protection as you did, I don't think you did any damage. 110 DBs for 1 second with protection in shouldn't hurt you.

As to your question I quoted above, during my TRT sessions, my therapist taught me that when we wear earplugs our auditory systems do in fact "turn the gain up" in order to hear through the plugs. That is why when you take your plugs out, everything seems louder, since you system is still straining to hear everything. This is why it is important not to overprotect in situations where the noise level really is not damaging.

Now let's both get off the forum and take our minds off tinnitus. Hope you are feel better!

 

What kind of earplugs are you using? Are they inserted deeply into the canal (without pressing against the eardrum)?

 

The ear protection you buy should have an attenuation data chart that shows protection at specific frequency levels. Here is one from my Howard Leight 33db Max.




"In terms of estimating the amount of protection while wearing earplugs and earmuffs concurrently, OSHA recommends simply adding 5 dB to the higher NRR (typically, this means adding 5 dB to the NRR of the earplug). Attenuation in the low frequencies will be a bit more, and in the high frequencies a bit less. The benefits of dual protection heavily rely upon a good fit of the earplug."


I've included the abstract below just to show that fireworks produce high levels of low-frequency sounds. Keep in mind that they are measuring at only 100m away.

-
Noise and low-frequency sound levels due to aerial fireworks and prediction of the occupational exposure of pyrotechnicians to noise.
Tanaka T1, Inaba R, Aoyama A.
Author information

Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
This study investigated the actual situation of noise and low-frequency sounds in firework events and their impact on pyrotechnicians.

METHODS:
Data on firework noise and low-frequency sounds were obtained at a point located approximately 100 m away from the launch site of a firework display held in "A" City in 2013. We obtained the data by continuously measuring and analyzing the equivalent continuous sound level (Leq) and the one-third octave band of the noise and low-frequency sounds emanating from the major firework detonations, and predicted sound levels at the original launch site.

RESULTS:
Sound levels of 100-115 dB and low-frequency sounds of 100-125 dB were observed at night. The maximum and mean Leq values were 97 and 95 dB, respectively. The launching noise level predicted from the sounds (85 dB) at the noise measurement point was 133 dB. Occupational exposure to noise for pyrotechnicians at the remote operation point (located 20-30 m away from the launch site) was estimated to be below 100 dB.

CONCLUSIONS:
Pyrotechnicians are exposed to very loud noise (>100 dB) at the launch point. We believe that it is necessary to implement measures such as fixing earplugs or earmuffs, posting a warning at the workplace, and executing a remote launching operation to prevent hearing loss caused by occupational exposure of pyrotechnicians to noise. It is predicted that both sound levels and low-frequency sounds would be reduced by approximately 35 dB at the remote operation site.