Permanent Hearing Loss Caused By Airbags!
Sometimes the most unexpected of deafness causes can be brought to our attention. It has been predicted that 17 per cent of car drivers will suffer severe hearing damage, leading to permanent deafness, as a result of being exposed to the deployment of car airbags.
Contrary to previous expert opinion, airbag deployment is also now considered more hazardous to the ear when a car’s windows are rolled down.
This is because the higher pressure generated in the closed space actually prevents greater damage to the ear by a displacement in the middle ear that stiffens the ‘stapes’, a small bone outside the inner ear. This stiffening limits the transmission of energy to the inner ear, where hearing damage takes place. In airbag experiments where an enclosed space is completely sealed and pressure is even higher, hearing damage is reduced even further.
Cars with smaller airbags sold in different parts of the world would likely pose less auditory danger to causing noise induced hearing loss when tested under identical circumstances.
Analysis is conducted to predict hearing loss as a result of exposure to intense sounds above 130 dB. It has been shown to predict hearing loss accurately in 95 percent of the cases in which human ears have been exposed.
There are very real, hidden auditory dangers posed by everyday, sudden and brief bursts of sound as opposed to a continuous noise. Even minor events such as a hammer hitting a nail or the sound of a baby’s rattle can produce hearing loss and highlights how common everyday occurrences present a very real hazard to our hearing.