Hearing protection; why it’s important

We live in a world with a lot of noises. This is a good thing: sound gives you experience and being able to communicate is a life-line. But sometimes everything is just too loud. If you visit a club or concert for example, but also at work. Your hearing is vulnerable and deserves attention. The sound level in a busy restaurant is sometimes at the verge of a safe sound level. Let alone how the decibels shoot upwards if you are at a festival. When are you safe? And how can you take measures?

When does sound become harmful?

The safe limit to which you can expose your hearing is 80 decibels. Being regularly surrounded by sounds above 80 decibels results in irreversible hearing loss. Sounds of 120 decibels may immediately damage your hearing. How harmful sounds are between 80 and 120 decibels, depends on how often and for how long you are exposed to it. In general, you could say that each increase of 3 decibels, triggers a doubling in the noise level.

To give you an idea of how quickly sound can be harmful, below you see you an overview of the number of decibels in certain situations and the time you can be exposed to it without incurring in hearing loss.

How does hearing loss occurs?

What exactly happens when you suffer from hearing loss? It is all about the cilia in the inner ear (cochlea). The cilia are tiny and are moved by sound waves. The cilia then transmit a signal through the auditory nerve to the brain where it is perceived as sound. In case of loud sounds and prolonged observation of (medium) loud sound, the cilia may be overloaded and break down. Damaged cilia transmit wrong signals by to the brain: this is the annoying beep you hear! If more and more cilia break down, you are at risk of tinnitus. This is a constant beep, forever. More and more young adults get to deal with this. When eventually not enough cilia remain to transmit sound to the brain, you slowly become hard of hearing.

NOIZEZZ hearing protection

The passion of NOIZEZZ is to let people enjoy sound optimally and safely. The principle is protecting the hearing, without losing speech intelligibility and (musical) nuances. The quality of NOIZEZZ hearing protection equipment is unrivalled. This is due to the unique filter system and the smart design.

How do the special NOIZEZZ filters work to dampen sound?

NOIZEZZ has two types of filters that dampen (too loud) noises that cause hearing loss, but do not distort sounds. No ‘weird’ sound, just enjoyment, but safely. Both types of filters are available in four different strengths: Mild, Medium, Strong and Extreme.

NOIZEZZ filter

The NOIZEZZ filter is characterized by its nuanced damping. Certain frequencies are dampened more than other frequencies and that is convenient in certain situations. For example, in the industrial sector or if you ride a motorbike. Due to the special mesh filter speech intelligibility remains good.

NOIZEZZ music filter

The music filter is characterized by its flat damping. The sound is dampened about equally over all frequencies. So, it is just as if you turn the volume a bit lower. As a result, musical nuances and speech remain perfectly audible.

Hearing protection is not a mere luxury, also not in everyday life. Give yourself and your ears the best quality hearing protection equipment. Listen with care!