What Are Safe Decibels?

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.

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.

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, so a safe level is 50 to 60 percent of the maximum volume. This helps protect our hearing and allows us to listen to our favorite music for longer. When using Bluetooth-enabled earbuds, 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.

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.

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