White Noise Induced Tinnitus

Emmett Bean

unread,

Jun 7, 2009, 11:57:59 AM6/7/09

to

I have tried ear plugs, ear protection but they don't help. My tinnitus
is triggered by white noise.

When my apartment air conditioning comes on or a ceiling fan comes on my
tinnitus explodes ! Any information as to how to deal with this would be
appreciated.

Emmett Bean - Houston, Texas

Peter Larsen

unread,

Jun 8, 2009, 10:58:50 AM6/8/09

to

Emmett Bean wrote:

| I have tried ear plugs, ear protection but they don't help.

That can to some extent be correct because the tinnitus can be more obvious
wearing them.

| My tinnitus is triggered by white noise.

Simplified at bit, eh? - I read you to the effect that high frequency noise
bothers you, which is quite reasonable but unpleasant.

| When my apartment airconditioning comes on

It is not difficult to attenuate high frequency noise AND allow airflow,
generally speaking it is done with a folded duct that is lined with sound
arbsorbent material.

| or a ceiling fan comes on

This one is easier: get a bigger fan that rotates slower.

| my tinnitus explodes!

Look here, you need to appreciate that your tinnitus is with you and it is
going to be more annoying some of the time and less annoying some of the
time. You need to develop an attitude to handle it, need man, need. Look at
it this way: you have tinnitus because your ears are trying to recover, they
may not succeed, but they try. It is quite possibly not totally correct, but
it is a great viewpoint to fix your attitude with.

| Any information as to how to deal with
| this would be appreciated.

I think you should ask over in alt.sci.physics.acoustics how to attenuate
your AC and ceiling fan, it is great for your health to have the lowest
possible noise level in your apartment.

| Emmett Bean - Houston, Texas

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

Emmett Bean

unread,

Jun 8, 2009, 6:25:56 PM6/8/09

to

Thanks for the advice. It is greatly appreciated.

Emmett Bean

geoff

unread,

Jun 14, 2009, 6:40:21 PM6/14/09

to

Why do you imagine that your AC is producing 'white noise' ?

geoff

unread,

Jun 14, 2009, 6:41:15 PM6/14/09

to

Peter Larsen wrote:

Peter !

Tinnitus - who'd have thought ....

geoff

Peter Larsen

unread,

Jun 17, 2009, 5:27:11 PM6/17/09

to

geoff wrote:

|| Peter Larsen wrote:

|| Peter !

|| Tinnitus - who'd have thought ....

Right ear courtesy of Lou Reeds guitarplayer and an idiot road crew who put
a 37.5 kWatt rig into a 2500 seater in 1972, left ear since an industrial
noise event in 1993, and I do pass the 58 mark on july 10. My audiogram data
were posted to r.a.p. last year, google knows .... strangely I think I keep
getting better at listening to music and to its sounds, but I do have
problems understanding for instance british english if spoken by a person
walking on my right side.

| geoff

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

unread,

Jun 17, 2009, 5:33:10 PM6/17/09

to

geoff wrote:

| Why do you imagine that your AC is producing 'white noise' ?

Airflow noise from - in this case - an air conditioning unit - is highly
likely to be some variation on the general theme of white noise. The black
horse is that it may just possibly, but not very likely be be that a
defective bearing emits a high pitched squeal just at or above his upper
limit of detection.

Try making a spectrum analysis of the noise from a worn powertool ... it is
highly likely to have astonishingly loud high frequency sinewave components.
You will not ever skip hearing protection while using them after having seen
what's really there .... fortunately for the designers A-weighting filters
it, so i will re-iterate that noise damage risk assessment should be based
on D-weigted measurements.

geoff

unread,

Jun 17, 2009, 8:08:59 PM6/17/09

to

I was being pedantic about the erroneous description of broadband noise as
'white noise', which has very specific definition as having equal average
power content for a specified bandwidth based on any centre frequency in a
specified audible band !

geoff.

�Bluto

unread,

Jun 18, 2009, 2:11:44 PM6/18/09

to

Michael or Fernando?
> Kind regards
>
> Peter Larsen
>
>

Peter Larsen

unread,

Jun 18, 2009, 11:53:34 PM6/18/09

to

Bluto wrote:

| Michael or Fernando?

Huh? - what is your question?

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

�Bluto

unread,

Jun 19, 2009, 6:57:12 AM6/19/09

to

I was wondering which Lou Reed guitar player you were referring
to...but perhaps back in 72 Michael and Fernando weren't with Lou.

Peter Larsen

unread,

Jun 19, 2009, 2:50:09 PM6/19/09

to

Bluto wrote:

||| Michael or Fernando?

|| Huh? - what is your question?

| I was wondering which Lou Reed guitar player you were referring

| to...but perhaps back in 72 Michael and Fernando weren't with Lou.

I plain do not know, just went to the concert. Formula 1 at Anderstorp in
1978 was louder - I still consider the start to be the as yet loudest sound
I have experienced based on how the midrange noise was felt in the chest,
but then I had learnt what do to: earplugs and earmuffs, they sold great
earmuffs on the racetrack. It was a very beatiful race and the last race
Ronnie Petterson ran all the way through, he died in an accident on Monza in
the next race.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

�Bluto

unread,

Jun 20, 2009, 10:48:07 AM6/20/09

to

I'll bet that start was loud!

Thanks and good luck

Emmett Bean

unread,

Oct 13, 2009, 11:12:22 PM10/13/09

to

Dear Mr. Larsen,

Thanks you for you information and I will take at look at
alt.sci.physics.acoustics. I also want to let you know the main problem
is in my right ear. The problem was made much worse by a recent stroke
a suffered on the right side of my body. The right ear very seldom
recovers and at the present time seems to be getting worse.

Any further suggestion you have would be appreciated.

Regards....Emmett Bean