PSA: The Dangers of Pure Tones, Tone Generators and Frequency Sweeps

[Replika]

I have an e-Bike. I used to ride it with no earplugs, but I was often riding with no assist or low assist, so it was pretty quiet. And then about 2 years ago, I started wearing foam earplugs when I bike. It's really quiet now, but I actually started wearing the earplugs due to the much louder wind noise. I also have low-frequency tinnitus, which I thought might have been caused by wind noise from so much bike riding, and I thought it could worsen my higher frequency tinnitus which elevated to a new level back then.

This concerns me too. Cycling hearing loss is definitely a topic among riders and some studies suggest wind at low-ish speeds can dangerous.

Currently I'm running the original Cat-Ears on my helmet. They do reduce wind noise, but I would like to take it further. AirPods seem to amplify the wind, unfortunately. I will definitely consider riding with earplugs, but I haven't had any spikes or even fatigue brought on by wind or traditional bikes -- yet, only the motors.

And also, to be clear I also own a Bosch-powered bike (one of their quieter motors), and it never caused me any lasting issue. I checked the frequency content and there was a faint band about 500 hz wide in the 18 kHz range. The bike that caused me insane ear fatigue had heavy tonal content around 19-20 kHz, and heavy whine from 500-3000 Hz. Several of the electric car studies referred to Prominence Ratio and Tone to Noise Ratio when discussing this kind of noise. Essentially (as I remember) they may look innocuous on a spectral analysis, but the suggestion is they should be considered more annoying due to pitch, tonal nature, and lack of noise in surrounding frequency areas.

They don't get into safety very much, more related to what is comfortable and annoying, but these car industry NVH articles are fascinating.

 

[linearb]

I have a Juiced CrossCurrent; it makes a hum, I can't hear it over the sound of breaking sticks and splashing mud and I don't, personally, use earplugs on a bicycle; the helmet and ear warmers I wear do a decent job deflecting noise.

If electronic devices are creating damaging levels of sound, this is something that can be easily detected using a couple hundred dollars worth of gear, and I imagine the NTSB would be interested, especially in the case of cars.

High speed biking, mostly road bikes, can absolutely cause hearing loss from wind noise. On motorcycles, wind noise starts to become a concern at about 50 mph and at 80-90 mph the wind noise is generally louder than the engine.

Road bikes may not go 90 mph but I've had them pacing me at 60 mph on hills before.

 

[RunningMan]

I should add that I did many years of motorcycling, with and without a helmet, at high speeds. So, all that noise damage was cumulative, and even low speed bicycling can be damaging with wind noise, even worse if it's already windy out. I don't even like to walk in the wind now.

If my e-Bike was generating sounds over 8 kHz, I wouldn't be able to hear them now.

 

[vedacia]

Honestly the widespreadness of pure tones and "test your hearing" kind of videos are NOT just harmful for the listeners themselves but also for the people around them - I am extremely noise sensitive (mostly due to autism) and have had people use one of those 'test your hearing' videos as a tool of torment, and since most of the people around me could not hear it, it just sounded like I was making stuff up out of thin air... I still find it hard to understand how anyone could find someone breaking down in tears with their hands to their ears to be even remotely amusing.

 

[Bill Arsenault]

Plausible deniability, huh. Sadly, I find the OP's post of an insufficient erudition for predicting the effects of pure tones, hence, it smacks of low-effort and argument from incredulity.

You may want to consider just using plain English in the future as most of us here are just ordinary people and not your fellow Professors.

We are already stressed out and unlikely to pull out a dictionary just to decipher your post.

You're not helping anyone by over-complicating things with the totally unnecessary use of words like "Hence".

 

[Fightthearmy]

You may want to consider just using plain English in the future as most of us here are just ordinary people and not your fellow Professors.

We are already stressed out and unlikely to pull out a dictionary just to decipher your post.

You're not helping anyone by over-complicating things with the totally unnecessary use of words like "Hence".

"hence", "so" What's the difference? I didn't want to use many words.

 

[Ksharky13]

They do not do the acoustic reflext test on me specifically because I have tinnitus.

I sent my ENT some of the information from this thread to see what she has to say about it. Interestingly, she also has tinnitus.

Did your ENT ever provide you with any feedback on this thread? Especially about the alleged heightened danger of pure tones?

 

[Esploratore]

The video that caused my tinnitus has 40 million views and 4.000 comments, yet I can hardly find anyone else complaining about getting such an issue from it. I found someone, but I had to search for a very long time.

Do you think it's a rare occurrence that an online hearing test (20 Hz to 20 kHz) causes tinnitus?

 

[Technoid]

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread, and I don't think many people here understand the fundamentals of acoustics or sound synthesis.

I think a lot of people here conflate hyperacusis and the worsening of the symptom of perceived ear-ringing with actual, measurable hearing damage. If a pure tone of, say, 5 kHz at 70 dB can damage your hearing, then any noise that also contains a 70 dB 5 kHz tone will damage your hearing. Nothing about that frequency at that volume being heard on its own changes its properties, and in fact, hearing that "damaging" 70 dB 5 kHz alone would be safer than hearing it on top of other frequencies at other dB levels, as that would only increase the amount of energy your ear is being exposed to.

Now, people who already have hyperacusis, regardless of cause, may very well have symptoms worsened by non-damaging volume levels. Frequency would only play a role in as much as their hyperacusis causes their ears/brain/nerves to behave differently to that specific frequency.

Also, suppose an 85 dB+ 5 kHz sound has truly damaged one's 5 kHz range. In that case, it may be more susceptible to receiving more damage from the additional strain of more 5 kHz noise, even if it's under the dB level a normal, non-damaged ear can handle. I don't know; I haven't read any studies on that.

If you have no previous damage, and you get tinnitus, or it worsens from listening to a certain pure tone at a safe (sub-85 dB) volume,, then something else is going on. I suspect that having temporary tinnitus for a few moments after a tone exposure may be normal, just as hearing ringing from suddenly being in quiet after being in a noisy environment is normal and not an indicator of actual lasting damage.

I've been dabbling in sound design since I was 15. If you look at the actual numbers in some of these graphics, they measure negative -70 dB. Far below what a human is capable of hearing. dB measurements in software are relative to a 0 dB baseline (for more on that here). All the graphics I've seen in this thread showing measurements of certain frequencies do not correlate with the number of decibels you would be exposed to if you listened to whatever sound that software is measuring.

 

[J96]

My life was severely impacted by pure tone neuromodulation. I experienced a tinnitus spike from a medication and came across a video that claimed to calm tinnitus. It initially worked, and I used it at medium volume (approximately 60-70 decibels) on my phone speaker about 8-9 inches away from each ear for about 2 minutes one day. However, after taking the next dose of the medication that night, the tinnitus spiked more severely, and I panicked when the video did not work again. In my desperation, I turned up the volume to maximum on my phone speaker. Although I only had it on for about 20 seconds, the volume became unbearably loud. In hindsight, I realize this was the onset of hyperacusis.

My ear instantly felt full, and I developed dysacusis, requiring me to lower the volume of my music later that night. Within a week, the condition spread to my other ear, and I had loudness discomfort levels (LDLs) of 65-70 decibels.

It remained stable until I listened to a song on New Year's Eve at around my LDLs, which triggered noxacusis. My LDLs immediately dropped to around 50-55 decibels, and within a month, they fell to 30 decibels. It's been nearly 8 months since then, and I have not improved despite maintaining silence.

Now, I have extremely reactive tinnitus after experimenting with GABAergic medications for relief. I mixed Gabapentin (1800 mg as prescribed), Clonazepam (0.25 mg), and Baclofen (5 mg) with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) one night, and my condition has been unstable since. I had not used Clonazepam in nearly 2 months at that point, and Baclofen was something I had only taken about 5 times before. There was no discernible pattern to the variability until I began taking 5 mg Diazepam twice a week for a month to cope. I had a paradoxical reaction after the fourth pill, and my tinnitus has become truly reactive even after being off them for 2 months.

Every morning, I wake up to new tones, except for 2 or 3 constant ones. Simply moving around in bed can trigger new tones for the day. I also have tones that increase in volume or change pitch and intensity with sound, which do not subside until I sleep. I now double-protect against any sound as I am terrified of the inevitable tinnitus spike. This situation is like hell on earth, and all of this could have been avoided if the 'tinnitus relief' pure tone videos had a warning.

I realize it was foolish to play it at maximum volume on a phone speaker, but I have found at least 5 other people who have developed the same hyperacusis and reactive tinnitus issues from that exact video. These videos truly damage the auditory system unlike anything else. At this rate, with the reactivity constantly increasing and no relief in either loudness hyperacusis or noxacusis, I do not foresee being able to continue much longer. I plan on trying to convince a doctor to deafen me so I can at least have some quality of life.

 

[benjd2016]

I concur that they are dangerous, especially if they are played loud. If not done carefully, this can cause tinnitus spikes. Also, don't take Aspirin whilst doing pure tones, as any ototoxic drugs can worsen the damage.

 

[Esploratore]

I'm trying to understand how intense the pure tone video was that I listened to, which caused my tinnitus. Does anyone know the general decibel levels that low-budget PC speakers can reach?

 

[Fazdoll]

I noticed a new tinnitus tone around Thanksgiving. It sounds like Morse code at 750 Hz, and I can't help but wonder if it's reactive tinnitus triggered by high-pitched electronic sounds from my laptop. In fact, there were a few moments when I thought the sound was coming from the computer itself. If it's just a spike, I really hope it settles down soon.