Walked by a Loud Jet Engine That Made a Loud Sound: Now My Tinnitus Is Worse

Flying to Finland to meet my girlfriend's family.

2th time flying. No biggie with good protection. It's all smooth. For the next part I couldn't be prepared for. I went out of the airplane. We had to go outside, old school no tube to walk back into the airport. The engine from the airplane was still on. It made a loud fucking sound. Everybody's ears were hurting. People were literally hurting and putting their fingers in their ears. So this wasn't me only. Luckily I wore earplugs when I went outside. I had protection of 17 dB for like 30 seconds. Then I quickly put a builder earmuffs. Which gave me around another 30 dB protection. Good double protection. So in total maybe 45 dB. Unfortunately we had to wait in the bus while the engine of the airplane was still on for like 4 minutes. Made me really mad but couldn't do anything about it.

Not sure if my tinnitus is up or if it is just anxiety. I feel like it's a bit worse again. Really, really shitty situation, really irresponsible of the flying company. Not only for me but for the others as well. I was really coping well the last months, now I feel like my tinnitus buzz is more noticeable during the whole day. Exhausting and what a bad luck. You couldn't think of this happening.

 

That sucks man! I hope the elevated noise comes down for you soon. It's rough learning to live with this shit. I'm barely two months in and hating it. God willing there is help sooner then later. Stay strong brother.

 

Sounds like something that should get better pretty quickly. Good thing you had hearing protection with you. Good looking out!

 

Thanks guys for the support. Needed that. I hope and think so too.

 

No, double protection does not add up like that...

 

Ah come on, bad timing man. He certainly did a good job with the extra protection, even though you can’t literally add up the two. His ears will have been the safest possible.

BBakers, kop op, makker! Those other people had nothing but their fingers to protect their ears, and this situation isn’t uncommon at all. Some people experience this multiple times a week (because of their job for example). Moral of the story? A lot of passengers would be deaf if it was as dangerous as you think. Your protection took care of your sensitive hearing. Take a deep breath and try to focus on these calming facts. I mean, you certainly know a lot of people that got tinnitus after a concert, but none after waiting next to a plane! Give your ears and your mind a break

 

And that's why handling agents have to wear earmuffs at all times, all the time, for safety reasons, when they are working around aircrafts...

 

So how does it work?

 

I'm not great at maths, but the result of double protection, let's say foam earplugs and construction earmuffs, is less that just adding up the individual protection provided by each item.

The decibel scale is logarithmic... so... complicated. Sound attenuation also varies by frequency...

 

Wondering how the efficiency of double protection translates to higher decibel levels? All it takes is a simple calculation to determine the level your double hearing protection is providing: Add 5 dBA to the highest noise reduction rating of the higher-rated hearing device. For example, if you’re using an earplug with a 30 NRR and an earmuff with a 26 NRR, you would add 5 dB to the 30 NRR for the earplug. Your protection level would then increase to 35 dB, assuming the earplug is worn properly. This simplified method of calculating double protection dBA is based on OSHA recommendations.

Source was:
https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/19104-double-hearing-protection

 

That is the ideal maximum though, right?

Isn’t it recommended you take the NRR, subtract 7, then divide it by 2 to get the decibel level in case your fit is not 100% correct?

Example:

33 NRR-7/2=13dB(a) reduction

https://www.coopersafety.com/earplugs-noise-reduction

 

Thanks for the support. I think so too. Nothing I can change now. Just deal with it. It just shit. It has been going very well lately.

 

I personally believe that you are actually going to be ok.

As people have pointed out, you had some protection right away and quickly got doubled up. As correctly pointed out, that doesn't mean 45 dB protection, probably closer to 25 to 30 dB. I think the "subtract 7 and divide by 2" is more of a caution than written in stone. It's basically assuming you are wearing the protection incorrectly or moving around a lot and dislodging the protection. It's basically saying "just because it says 30 dB reduction, don't assume you'll always have that protection."

You had good protection the whole 4 minutes of exposure. I think you are experiencing anxiety. I have done this to myself countless times. It usually happens when I've been feeling good and at peace with my tinnitus. Then a loud noise happens and my fear takes over suddenly I perceive the noise as damaging. This goes for some time until I find something in life that distracts me... then eventually I realize my tinnitus is normal.

If you look for changes to your tinnitus while having anxiety caused by loud noise, you will find it. I honestly think you did the right thing and should enjoy the the benefit, the benefit being that no damage was likely done.

How are you doing now?

 

My belief is that double protection will provide better protection for some frequencies than others, i.e. I bet double protection probably provides more than +5 dB protection against higher frequencies, since those tend to get blocked more than lower frequencies.