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If It Sounds Too Loud, It Is Too Loud

Decibels are the unit of measurement for sound, abbreviated dB. Sounds at or below 70 dB are considered safe for our hearing. That’s the sound of a normal conversation between two people.

Sounds above 70 dB can damage hearing over time.

Like the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes, the decibel scale is logarithmic. This means that loudness is not directly proportional to sound intensity. Instead, the intensity of a sound grows very fast. A sound at 20 dB is 10 times more intense than a sound at 10 dB, and would be perceived as twice as loud.

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If we need to shout at a friend who is an arm’s length away, or we can hear music coming out of another person’s headphones, the volume is at least 85 dB, which is the maximum “safe level” for workplace noise exposure over the course of an eight-hour day.

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The issue is that it’s not just the workplace that we experience loud sounds—it’s also during our commute or while out to dinner or the movies—as well as our use of personal listening devices.

This workplace limit is also not safe for children, whose auditory system is still developing, and their ears have to last a lifetime. We recommend following the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders guidelines to limit exposure to an average 70 dB: “Sounds at or below 70 A-weighted decibels (dBA), even after long exposure, are unlikely to cause hearing loss.” (A-weighted decibels, or dBA, emphasize the frequencies heard in human speech.)

Headphones and earbuds can reach as loud as 100 dB or more. Users of personal audio system are at about four times greater risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss than non-users, with hearing loss reported in users as young as 9, according to a 2021 Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics paper, which notes that the greatest risk is for personal listening for more than one hour daily and over 50 percent volume for more than five years.

Turning it down even a little helps our hearing a lot. Turning it down allows us to listen to our favorite music for longer. So when we’re using Bluetooth-enabled earbuds, we can limit the volume using the phone’s settings.

For venues and events where amplified music is being played, the World Health Organization issued recommendations to monitor the sound levels, optimize acoustics to ensure safe listening, and provide ear protection as well as access to quiet zones so attendees can rest their ears.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has an interactive infographic on decibel levels.

Measure Decibels Using Your Phone

Both Apple and Android phones support sound level meter apps that measure decibels. In fact, on the Apple iPhone and Apple Watch, the embedded Health app measures decibels and can send alerts when it is too loud. Here are other sound level meter apps:

While these guidelines and comparison are helpful, a basic rule of thumb is common sense: If it sounds too loud, it IS too loud.

Just as we are aware of how much sun we get or steps we’ve walked, let’s be aware of our daily sound dose. A ballpark understanding of how much volume our ears are exposed to can help us take steps to protect them, by carrying and wearing earplugs, turning it down when we can, and taking quiet breaks to rest our ears.

A Simple Hearing Protection Toolkit

Carry earplugs: Think of earplugs like sunscreen for our ears—let’s keep them on hand wherever we go.
Turn it down: Reducing the volume by just 3 decibels cuts the risk of hearing damage in half.
Take quiet breaks: Let’s rest our ears in quiet after excess noise.
Know the signs: Tinnitus or muffled hearing are early signs of damage. Earplugs at concerts protect our ears.