Ibiza By Night wants to provide useful informations and people who go to the disco occasionally about how important it is to protect hearing.
This is the topic we discussed with Joost Toast (in the picture below) founder of the global consciousness campaign Ibiza Loves Ears and director of ACS Custom hearing protection in Spain. He made it his life’s work to inform and educate our fellow music lovers about the risk of sound while providing the worlds best solution to protect their ears from tinnitus and hearing loss. Ibiza By Night has been following Joost over the past years and we invited him to do an article about this matter that affects us all.
IBN:Welcome Joost! As you know we believe in the value of your work and the importance of using hearing protection when going out. Can you tell us something about the risks that clubbers face when they go out into loud environments?
Joost: First of all thank you for the support and the invitation! Unfortunately most people don’t think about music as a dangerous threat to their ears. They simply go out to have a fun night, enjoying their favourite DJ or band. It becomes less fun when they wake up with a muffled/ringing or beeping sound in their ears that might stay for a lifetime. Everybody knows these symptoms after a long time in the club or on a festival and still a lot of people don’t really have an idea what is going. To go quick: basically music is multiple waves of pressure that vibrate our eardrum, which goes into the inner ear where there are about 20.000 tiny auditory hairs that move in fluid (see it like the wind flowing over a field or grain in the summer). When the sounds are below 80 decibels (dBA’s) our ears are happy. When we turn up the volume to 85 dB we already start to stress the ears. On this level our so-called ‘Save Exposure Time (SET)’ is at 8hrs. EU regulations already say that each person working in an environment with 85 dB + needs to wear hearing protection, provided by their employer! Most club and festivals crank up the volumes to 100 dB (SET = 15min) or even higher. Each 3 dB on top will minimize the SET with 50%. Knowing this, you are putting your ears into great risk when being on the dance floor for hours! The end result for many is creating music induced hearing damage and/or (temporary) tinnitus. For this there isn’t any cure to heal it. The good thing is that these problems are preventable with the right hearing protection.
IBN: We still hear a lot of misconceptions about earplugs/hearing protection. What type of protection is there on the market and what is the difference between them?
Joost: Yes, many people still think in these yellow foam earplugs – which are great for drilling a hole in the wall, but not for enjoying music. I’d like to kill the following misconceptions about filtering hearing protection:
– You actually listen to the music better, cleaner, without ambient distortion.
–It’s easier to understand people when they talk to you.
-Hearing protection is super comfortable if you choose soft medical grade silicone.
-You won’t have uncomfortable beeps or muffled sounds when you leave the club or in the next day(s).
-You’re actually the coolest on the dance floor instead of an unconscious raver.
IBN: Do you see a difference between awareness around the use of earplugs between industry professionals and the clubbers?
Joost: Definitely! I see the people working in the industry becoming more and more conscious about it. Partly due to that hearing problems are our biggest occupational disease within the industry, partly due to that earplugs are used more and more. Therefore we have a growing list of ambassadors who support this campaign. This problem concerns us all. Our ears are meant to survive not to stand in front of a loudspeaker for hours (or even days), professional or clubber.
There is a lack of responsibility in providing information and offering suitable hearing protection out of the industry towards the clubbers. It is still a taboo and in my opinion it is a crime. Some club and festival owners tell me: “We like the idea and the product but when we give out the hearing protection or information we are indirectly saying that we harm people and their ears and we don’t want that.” So, they know perfectly well what is happening but out of shame or “bad publicity” they choose to look the other way. It’s time we all take action, the industry, clubs, festivals and music lovers themselves..because the problems are growing and the results are devastating!
IBN: Thanks Joost for this piece of advice. Where can people go to find out more about sound and hearing protection?
Joost: Obviously I can go on and on about this subject. If people want to read more, please go to our website http://ibizalovesears.com and http://acscustom.es to see the full list of products we provide. Or send me a DM on Instagram: @joost_toast or @ibizalovesears For the readers of this interview we give away 2x ACS PACATO universal earplugs. Please send an email to competition@ibizalovesears.com and we will pick two winners by the end of June ’19. Good luck and keep your ears safe!
