06/13/2026
You’d never stare at the sun without sunglasses. So why are you blasting 110 decibels directly into your ear canal every morning on the commute?
Here’s something most people never learn: hearing damage isn’t about how loud something feels. It’s about how loud it actually is and how long you’re exposed. A normal conversation sits around 60 dB — your ears can handle that all day. City traffic and a busy restaurant push 80 dB, which is still safe for about 8 hours. But here’s where it gets uncomfortable.
Your lawnmower? 90 dB. That blender you use for your morning smoothie? Same range. At that level, damage starts after just 2 hours of continuous exposure. And nobody thinks twice about mowing the lawn for an afternoon without earplugs.
Now jump to concerts, nightclubs, and spin classes — 100 to 110 dB. Your safe exposure window drops to 15 minutes. Not an hour. Not “until the headliner comes on.” Fifteen minutes. After that, you’re doing permanent damage to hair cells in your inner ear that will never regenerate.
The one that gets people every time: earbuds at max volume hit that exact same range. 100-110 dB. The difference is that a concert ends after a few hours. Your earbuds are in your ears for the entire workday, every commute, every gym session, every night before bed. That’s hours of concert-level sound funneled directly into your ear canal, day after day after day.
And above 120 dB — sirens, fireworks, a gunshot — damage can happen instantly. Not over time. On a single exposure.
The simplest rule we tell patients: if you have to raise your voice to be heard by someone standing next to you, the environment is too loud for unprotected ears. That’s it. That’s the test.
Swipe through to see exactly where your daily life falls on the decibel scale. You might want to turn your volume down after this one.
📍 HearBear Audiology & Speech Clinic — Surrey, BC
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