or loud vehicle exhaust can start your ears ringing. So can hair dryers, lawn care equipment and vacuum cleaners.

Hearing loss and tinnitus can also come in small packages. An iPod or MP3 player, personal cassette or CD player can start your ears ringing.

PROTECTING YOUR HEARING

Brian Fligor, Sc.D., director of diagnostic audiology at Children's Hospital in Boston says most people can safely listen to music at 85 decibels for up to eight hours. An easily achieved sound level for mini-music players. But a slight increase in volume, to say 88 decibels, and the safe listening time plummets to just four hours. Music pounding into your ears at 94 decibels, via earbuds or headphones, is safe for about an hour, according to Dr. Fligor.

Based on the standards set by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. Fligor says of personal music players: “A maximum permissible noise dose would typically be reached within one hour of listening with the volume control set to seventy percent of the maximum.”
Dean Garstecki, chairman of Northwestern University Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, recommends adhering to the 60 percent-30 minute rule. Listeners should set their MP3 players, and the like, to a sound level no more than 60 percent of the maximum volume—just over halfway between “off” and “maximum” volume and use earbuds or headphones no more than 30 minutes a day.

Noise-canceling headphones are a viable option for those who want to listen to music for an extended amount of time. They partially or fully suppress background noise so that users don’t have to turn up the music’s volume to overcome outside sounds. “It’s when you start cranking it up (the volume) that you have to limit the dosage,” says Garstecki.

When exposed to other sources of loud sounds use ear protection and limit exposure when possible.

TREATING TINNITUS

If you already have ringing and buzzing in your ears, you can’t