Man's Clever but Noisy Inventions

An ironic thought - Man has cleverly discovered / invented useful technologies but isn't clever enough to cure the tinnitus and hearing damage they can cause. I'm all for progress, but it would be nice to see progress in finding a cure. I believe in the modern we are exposed to too many of Man's noisy inventions.

The onset of my chronic intrusive tinnitus was due to noisy jobs in a manufacturing environment over the years, caused by man-made machines. I would be surprised if anyone's tinnitus was caused by the sounds of nature. We live in a noisy world, mostly through man-made inventions. I worry for my children. Examples of common sounds where hearing damage can occur very quickly are exposure to car airbags, ambulance sirens, gunfire, fire alarms, rock concerts, fireworks (firecrackers), jack hammer, to name just a few. It is well documented that sounds of 120 decibels plus can cause immediate harm.

It's no wonder tinnitus and hearing loss is increasing, and clever Man needs to come up with something better than tinnitus management tools.

 

Agreed. And the 85db for 8 hours a day scale is complete bullshit. That and they don't account for high frequency noises. Anything over 10kHz doesn't even get measured, and as you probably know, with air pressure and the like you can get a lot of really loud high frequency sounds that are damaging to the ears.

 

Man invents great things with sound. But cant fix your ears when those devices ruin you.


Think about the AirPods of Apple. Great design but do people know the danger in those things? And also why do they allow dangerous sound levels?

 

Good point but too the normal ear headphone use isn't usually an issue unless you literally blast your ears with music all day everyday, granted some people can be more subseptable than others.
I know I would have used headphones on flights or on holidays but would have rarely used them at other times and I never had a problem with my ears ringing after even if I did turn the volume up a tat too much.
It took a ridiculously powerful alarm too damage my hearing and that only took a few minutes.

 

While they probably aren't loud enough to cause damage those Xcelerator type hand dryers in public toilets can be very uncomfortable to the ears.........in a conversation quite a few people I know have admitted that if that is the only option they would prefer not to wash their hands. I now carry a small pouch of anti bac wipes but I guess a lot of people don't' ....... eeeek!! Maybe not such a great invention after all.

 

Agree. Modern man has been on the planet 200,000 years. Evolution is based upon environment. Modern devices has dramatically increased sound level out of lock step with evolution. Further man is living much longer. Countless people kept alive with body parts wearing out that would have parrished previously due to lack of medical advances. The convergence of these two things is a perfect storm of longer suffering with no answer to the question of tinnitus and hyperacusis.
That said, there seems to be a chorus of those that believe there hasn't been a substantial effort to extinguish this scourge which I completely discount. A hell of an effort has been invested into resolving hearing loss and tinnitus. It is beyond complex...perhaps even a mystery how the masterpiece of the mind can take air percussion and convert to a construct...all sound is. No sound exists in the world or in the universe....only in our heads.

 

I hate those hand dryers, too, @Andunwoody! I just walk out with wet hands when they're my only choice.

 

I dont even know if its a mental or physical problem. Its beyond complex indeed.

 

I agree about those hand dryers. I'm thinking, "How fast can I wash my hands before someone gets to one of those dryers next to me." Ha, tinnitus makes you act crazy. Other crazy examples are the fire alarm tests in the office every Monday morning. One day I was up front speaking to the whole team (about 60 people) and the announcement came. I had to excuse myself while it went off, holding my ears. Awkward moment! And when it comes to those road diggers I am sure I can move past them quicker than Usain Bolt could. Anyone else got some examples of how they have acted around these loud man-made noises? As long as they haven't caused long term harm then sometimes I look back and can smile at my behaviour at times. My friend in a support group jokes with me that my biggest nightmare would be one of those vuvuzelas you get at football matches being blasted in my ear. Not a clever invention, just a pointless, noisy one.