Can Hair & Hand Dryer Lead To Hearing Loss?

Posted by Kunal Sutar on February 4th, 2020

For once count the number of times you dry your hair at home or your hands in the public bathroom. In Mumbai, around 45% of the people tend to utilize it as a means of fashion and comfort. As you know that prolonged exposure to high volume sounds can result in irreversible hearing problems in the future and make you dependent on hearing aids, but ever thought what about hearing a moderate sound for a short period? Isn’t a dryer and ears a harmful mix?

Popularity of hand dryers:

As per the research carried out, the hand dryers when invented in the year 1922, it used to take 36 seconds of drying time with its warm air towel. Even though they are since ages, they have been in demand from the last 10-12 years for several reasons.

The initial and main reason for making use of hand dryers was it was eco-friendly. A little less trash is made as well as many people feel good knowing that they have contributed towards deforestation. Moreover, fewer toilets are blocked as paper towels have no more been an option. 

In terms of efficiency, hand dryers can also dry hands faster, and many believe it is a more hygienic way to clean hands. Since 2014, sales for hand dryers have grown 12% per year, and their trajectory is only going up.  

Popularity of hair dryers:

A survey was taken down to know how many women used hairdryer from the year 2015-2017. It was seen that in the year 2015, approximately 70% of women used hairdryer which rose to 75% and 79% in the years 2016 and 2017 respectively. 

This portrays that the demand for a hairdryer is rising day by day, though there are certain controversies whether to regularly use hairdryer or not. It can damage as well as dry your hair, in the same way as hand dryer leads to damage in hearing.

Dryers and your ears: Are they hurting you?

According to hearing science, a sound of 80-90 DB is made by a hand or hairdryer. It is a little louder than the vacuum cleaner and equal to a blender. Even though this won’t instantly damage your ears but if exposed regularly to it, then it can lead to hearing loss and make you dependent on hearing loss treatment or permanent use of digital/invisible hearingaid solutions. 

The high noise of hairdryers goes straightly into the ear, just like the earbuds which can be more hazardous. The hair dryers have different levels, and so for kids, the lowest level is selected so that it doesn’t affect their ears. A researcher decided to do a certain kind of research on hand dryers. She went through the heights as well as decibel levels of hand dryers and in the end, came out with a solution for lessening the sound by using air filters.

According to the research done by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the threshold of hearing loss is around 90 DB that is approximately just like the hand and hair dryers. As these products are these days trending, there is a rising chances of hearing loss as compared to earlier.