BY THE NUMBERS

death by

stereo

LOUD MUSIC BLOWING OUT EARDRUMS

isn’t the only way sound can get under your skin. The World

Health Organization, for example, estimates that Western

Europeans lose 1 million healthy years to traffic noise annu-

ally, mostly due to sleep disturbance and stress raising the

risk of chronic issues like cancer and heart disease. Here’s

what it takes for a noise to hit you where it hurts.

Playing this inaudibly low pitch

at high volume will make your

vision fl icker. By matching the

frequency at which an eyeball

naturally vibrates, the waves

distort its shape. At least one

“haunted” room has turned out

to have a hum near this range.

These low, inaudible frequencies,

called infrasound, seem to make

humans uneasy. It’s possible that

evolution taught us to fear anything

massive enough to make such deep

drones, or perhaps it’s that the long

wavelengths create uncomfortable

pressure inside our bodies.

Minimum volume of consistent

nighttime noise (equivalent to a

busy street) that can lead to high

blood pressure and an uptick

in heart attack risk. Try to keep

your bedroom to 30 dB or less.

The bass level that, according to a 2004 study, could

cause your lungs to collapse. The doctors concluded

that tiny pockets of air can, when hit by particularly

loud rumbles that coincide with the organ’s natural

frequency, rupture the tissue itself.

minutes

by Rachel Feltman POPSCI.COM•WINTER 2019 21

Time it takes for someone shouting

directly into your ear—around

110 dB— to harm hearing. Any-

thing above 140 dB (a fi recracker

exploding) can cause immediate

nerve damage, and louder booms

can rupture your eardrums.

2

30-150Hz

The level at which infrasound can

force the lungs to inhale and exhale

at an abnormal rhythm, potentially

creating shortness of breath.

177 dB

19

Hz

55 dB

< 20 Hz

15

minutes

for a pair of maxed-out

headphones— reaching

100 dB or higher— to

cause some degree of

permanent hearing loss.