[CAUT] Hearing Protection Desirable for Tuning?

[Porritt, David]

I've never seen scientific studies on damage from the typical sound
pressure level of tuning pianos, but I've met a bunch of older tuners
who had lost it.  I've been using ER15's for many years and my hearing
has stayed very good.  Now if I could just do something about the damage
done to my hands by cranking on that tuning lever all these years!  

dp

David M. Porritt
dporritt@smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jeff Olson
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 12:45 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: [CAUT] Hearing Protection Desirable for Tuning?

I was surprised to learn that anyone believes that normal tuning would 
generate decibels anywhere close to ear-damaging levels.  My
understanding 
is that the "average" person can safely tolerate eight hours of
continous 85 
db.  I'd guess the decibels normally generated by a piano tuning would
be 
around 45 - 65 db, unless one is tuning the piano Jerry Lewis style :).

I'm wondering what your basis would be for believing that tuning
represents 
a threat to hearing (or does it simply seem more comfortable to you to
wear 
earplug/filters?).  Is it personal experience, or are you aware of 
scientific studies that confirm this possibility (I'm not aware of any,
but 
that doesn't mean they don't exist)?

Best,

JO 

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