Hearing Loss Caused by Driving With Windows Down, Radio Turned Up Loud?

A Google search on “Does driving with windows down cause hearing loss?” yields some pretty definitive YES results.

A 2010 study of just the wind/road noise in top-down/windows-down convertibles showed the average noise level to be 89 dB. Playing the radio loud as I did would certainly jack things up a bit more.

Hearing loss from driving a convertible: reality or myth?4

Leave it to the Brits to address such a common question with scientific rigor and analysis! Philip Michael, Niel Opie and Michael Smith, from Worcestershire Royal Hospital in the UK, published...

The chart in the following Johns Hopkins article on preventing noise-induced hearing loss rates the sound level caused by driving at high speeds with the windows down as being in the 85 to 95 dB range. So, Yep, with the radio blaring away, and driving 4 to 6 hours each way on a trip as I did, I bet that I suffered a bit of hearing loss from that proclivity over the years. I enjoyed a great “feel of the open road” experience, though!
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/international/_downloads/Hearing_Loss_JHI.pdf60

I’m sure the combination of the two sources wouldn’t help! Especially since one is going to crank the radio to hear over the wind noise.

That said, high frequency loss for some is simple a fact of life, like losing your eye sight as you age. It just happens.

One can look for a cause, but you can never say for sure.

@Evil_Scientist said:

That said, high frequency loss for some is simple a fact of life, like losing your eye sight as you age. It just happens.

One can look for a cause, but you can never say for sure.

I agree with you 100%. It’s just higher up on the awareness scale of things that I probably shouldn’t have done that weren’t too likely to help. Riding NYC subways and sitting a few rows away from the Doors speakers during a concert in the 1960’s probably didn’t help much either!- but since my date, who bought the tickets, was a Doors fanatic, I couldn’t imagine seeking relief for serious pain by walking out on her and the concert. Just like the wind/radio noise, it didn’t even occur to me in doing these things that the damage could be permanent. Maybe as part of secondary education, there should be some indoctrination on hearing loss with age (so kids are more understanding of us old folks!) and teaching that you shouldn’t try to help nature out too much by doing the wrong things. If I’d known then what I know now, I might have worn appropriate ear protection or headphones while driving with the windows down, riding the subway, and going to rock concerts. I think, too, that I rode my riding mower a few decades ago at least a time or two before my ears requested that I get them some hearing protection… It’s been about 55 years since I was in secondary school, so maybe they teach kids “more better” about loud noises as a public health concern these days… I certainly hope so. Just seeing the Johns Hopkins noise level chart that I reference earlier in this thread would have kept me out of a bunch of potential trouble.