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Comment by tornato7 | Hacker News Reader

There are ordinary household activities that reach dangerous decibel levels too. Stacking ceramic dishes, slamming the toilet seat, vacuuming in a tight space, etc.

You will actually find that doing every day chores is much more pleasurable with hearing protection.

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We have no glass, ceramic, steel, or marble-topped tables or furniture for this reason. Putting things down on them is super noisy, people tend to drop things on accident and the sound of a metal water bottle hitting a thick glass table is the worst. Even simple things: keys, phone, coffee mugs, your laptop. I feel silly typing this out, but the general noise level of day-to-day living went way down when we swapped the glass furniture for wood furniture throughout the whole house.

+1 to earplugs when vacuuming the car.

I now often put the dishes away with my noise cancelling headphones on, after accidentally doing it one day with them on and finding out how much less jarring it is. I wonder what the affect of this on age related hearing loss is - i.e how much of age related hearing loss is actually cumulative minor environmental toll.

Only problem with applying this strategy outside of domestic environments is safety.

Agreed, dish stacking physically hurts! There is a fine balance though, as with hyperacusis wearing hearing protection can make the problem worse as your sensitivity to sound can increase. Also makes the tinnitus seem worse. I will admit to putting in my custom earplugs when I unload the dish washer, however.

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