Instantaneous hearing loss?

[PinnedAndRecessed]

I gleaned the following figures from posted research:

Gradual hearing loss may occur after prolonged exposure to 90 decibels or above.

Exposure to 100 decibels for more than 15 minutes can cause hearing loss.

Exposure to 110 decibels for more than a minute can cause permanent hearing loss.

However, I've never seen any information about instantaneous hearing loss from one-time exposure.

For example, if an artillery soldier, without hearing protection, is standing next to a howitzer when it goes off, is his hearing loss permanent?

Does anybody have valid info as to what decibal level will permanently damage hearing instantaneously?

Or is there such a thing?

 

[deadin]

I'm not sure of the decibel level, but rupturing an eardrum might do it.

 

[Bruce333]

130 db and higher is generally considered the area where instant, permanant, damgage occurs.

http://www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/Noise-induced+hearing+loss+1640.twl
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/news/Archives03/noise-induced-hearing-loss.cfm
http://www.audiologyawareness.com/library.asp

 

[PinnedAndRecessed]

Thanx bru. The links are invaluable.

 

[george29]

My mom came to visit me from Chicago, and I took her to the desert to renew her acquaintance with shooting (She keeps a small Taurus .25 in the house).

She apparantly did not put the ear plugs in properly (this is not her first time shooting and I didn't think to make certain she had inserted her plugs properly, I had stupidly assumed). Mom permanently lost her hearing after only shooting perhaps 20 rounds and now uses an expensive hearing aid that only partially recovers sounds.

So in answer to the question if it is possible to lose your hearing after only shooting once...YES.

 

[oldfart]

Once, in the service, I was an instructor on the 3.5" rocket launcher (bazooka) and I inadvertantly stood alongside the exhaust when a pupil fired a round. I immediately lost ALL hearing in one ear though subsequent examination showed that the eardrum hadn't been ruptured. Later that day I experienced a ringing in that ear and as the evening and night wore on, most of my hearing came back. Today it's more or less normal though I do have a dandy case of tinusitis (sp?) in both ears.