Is a sound level of 105 decibels for a few seconds enough to rupture a person's eardrum?
Is a sound level of 105 decibels for a few seconds enough to rupture a person's eardrum?
In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son's hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured.
Is this plausible?
No not a few seconds. Ever walked near a jackhammer 130dB in the street for a few seconds? That is significantly louder. In general anything over 85dB for a significant amount of time causes damage. Concerts top out at around 110dB and you don't see people popping eardrums there.
However if you have an ear infection so some other type of damage then maybe?
I read Texas so I'm going to assume it was due to shooting guns
it's worth keeping in mind that dB fall off very quickly over distance and having a jackhammer right up next to your ear is different from passing a few feet beside it
Yes that's why dB measurements are always done in open air from 1 meter distance.
edit: Headphone measurements are obviously different and are optimally measured at the distance the eardrum sits from the speaker element, with similar encasing as the headphone model offers. For In-ear, it's a very low distance and a high level of encasing. Airpods will obviously not make 105 dB at 1 meter.
The 105 decibels is the max headphone output as it's placed in the ear.
In theory yes, but a jackhammer or a concert don't obstruct your ear canal as earbuds do. Maybe the closed environment acts like a literal echo chamber. (Not a doctor, I'm speculating)
Sound pressure falls off as a function of the square of the distance. So if that jackhammer is 3 m away you are only receiving 11% of the sound energy that the operator is.
I think it's very different if it is a clean digital noise. Acoustic sounds, even when loud, have a brief ramping up. Digital noise can appear like a wall from zero to 110dB in literally zero time for the ear to adjust.
The ear has tiny hairs that
raise to absorb sound and protect the hearing(see comment for a correction). I know of somebody that had a digital noise cut right through them and cause permanent hearing loss. Their hairs were flattened and no longer work. I don't know the amplitude though.Just want to chime in and mention those tiny hairs aren't protective. They're hair cells, named because they have tufts of stereocilia, and are what your ear actually uses to hear. When they die, you lose hearing. There are two types, inner and outer, and while the outer can influence the amount of sound detected by the inner hair cells, they can only amplify, not reduce.
The ear protects itself against loud sounds by contracting the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles, dampening the eardrum and tensing and shifting back the ossicles, the small hearing bones of the ear. This all serves to reduce the amount of force transmitted to the inner ear but takes time to occur, so it can't protect against sudden loud noises, like a gunshot.
You're almost right in so many aspects it unfortunately becomes utterly wrong.
Digital and analog noise aren't real things, or at least not the words that are used for it. Digital and analog noise has to do with signals and frequency spectrums, not with the actual pressure differentials that are physical sound waves.
But there is a similar concept, where a thing happening can create a strong pressure wave, typically called an air blast, and are common when talking about blasting and other explosions (where the pressure wave is significant, but not really a noise). Ear pods do not create a significant pressure wave.
The ear does have tiny hairs for hearing, and they do break at sudden and loud noises (@soleinvictus explained our defence mechanisms brilliantly in another reply) and also at repeated exposure to loud noises. A breakage typically results in partial, temporary, hearing loss and "ringing in your ears", whereas permanent death of the sensory cells leads to tinnitus, which isn't the same as hearing damage/loss.
I can't find any mention of a specific dB level in the submitted documents though I can't find every document online for free. Apple tried to have the case dismissed but seems to have messed up their paperwork.
The claim is not just about rupturing the eardrum, but also about tinnitus. While I doubt the 105dB maximum is enough to rupture the eardrums of a healthy young boy, I can imagine it being enough to induce tinnitus.
It remains to be seen if the supposed 105dB limit you quote was actually applied as intended. The limit is enforced in software, and software can be buggy.
I'm sure a medical professional will be consulted during the lawsuit, so you'll probably get your answer eventually. The courts move slow, though, so it may take a while to get a definitive answer.
The 105 decibels is the maximum output physically possible by the headphones. The software can limit max output to 80-85db but Amber Alerts bypass this, so 105 decibels is possible.
That dB level isn't crazy high, but rupturing your eardrum typically has more to do with sound pressure level (SPL) which very well might be possible when you're talking about little speakers as close to the eardrum as possible and creating a partial air lock. That and like other people have said, you don't need to rupture anything to get some serious tinnitus.
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/noise-induced-hearing-loss
Apple did add the option to change the tone volume after this incident. So there must be something here. Also, it's unlikely that the volume was only 105 db. But from most medical sources, typically up to 110 db is acceptable and may only cause hearing loss after decades. A siren hits up to 120-130 db.
Punctured ear drums usually occur because of pressure differences and not just loud sounds, so there may be more here than just loudness as AirPods do change the pressure around the ear (the Pro's actually have an exhaust to alleviate the pressure build up from the sound and the seal around the ear).
Yeah, I'd say it's 100% plausible.
Police and emergency responder sirens are about 120 dB at 1 meter. The duration of exposure is similar to an Amber Alert tone. I don't see people suing cities for ruptured eardrums from exposure to sirens.
Long-term exposure over 85 db can cause hearing loss, but rupturing an eardrum takes a lot higher intensity - 165+ dB. That's a shot from a large caliber weapon from a few feet away. I know it can rupture an eardrum because it ruptured mine (shooting partner emptied his 50 cal Desert Eagle next to me before I got my protection on).
eta: sorry - replied to wrong comment.
Sound pressure falls off as a function of the square of the distance. So if that jackhammer is 3 m away you are only receiving 11% of the sound energy that the operator is.
To rupture? I would be highly dubious of that claim. Without some kind of factor weakening or otherwise changing things, there's no headphones out there that could do that, even with a perfect seal.
Damage hearing, absolutely. But that's a far cry from rupturing an ear drum. That's hard enough to do on purpose. I've seen people try to clap hands on the ears to attempt a rupture and never seen it work.
I've had some big fucking handguns go off near my ear without a rupture. Couldn't hear shit for days in one case, but no injury to the membrane itself. Fuck, I've been right near the stage for Iron Maiden and was fine the next day.
Eardrums are hard to rupture at all, much less without a very good seal and large amounts of air moving.
Is there any actual evidence in this case? Is it easy in Texas to fake a claim like this?
No idea. Don't know anything about the case, nor any texas specific lawsuit issues.
It’s plausible since humans probably have different sensitivities for their ears. I live in a city with a train that goes right through the middle of it. It’s got no guard rails and if you’re driving you could reach out and touch it if you wanted. They are required to blast their horns every X meters for safety at max decibels of 110. The closest I’ve been is 3 or 4 meters when it went off. I didn’t get any hearing damage from it though and I haven’t heard of anyone else getting any. That could be related to how close the source of sound was though.
So I would conclude with it’s probably unlikely that was the sole cause as people are around trains all the time. Plus I’m sure plenty of people get amber alerts through there.
I spent 6 months living in a tent 200 yards away from the centerline of a runway with large 4 engine aircraft landing regularly. I have a wicked case of tinnitus, hearing aids, and no ruptured ear drums.
Not typically. Instantaneous noise levels of Lp 115 dBA have a significant risk of permanent injury, and long term exposure above Lp,den 50 dBA (especially at night) will shorten your life.
But hearing damage is cumulative, if you go about shooting guns without protection or other noise pollution, you might get injured at lower levels.