Noise annoys: how's your hearing?

Regular exposure to noises of over 85 decibels can damage your hearing. Now 85 dB is not particularly loud — a toilet flushing is 85 decibels so don't stick your head down there. A vacuum cleaner can also clock in at 85 — not that there's any danger of most us using that for too long.

As the table on the right shows even a ringing telephone comes close which leaves me wondering why call centres don't answer them more often. Don't they realise they're damaging their hearing?

So how do you know when a sound is louder than 85 dB? As a rule of thumb, a sound is over 85 dB if you have to raise your voice to be heard by somebody else. About eight hours of 90 dB sound can cause damage to your ears while any exposure to 140 dB sound will cause immediate damage. You'll know it's over 140 dB becuase it actually hurts. (The pain threshold is actually around 125 dB)

Recently there's been concern over MP3 players and (as the table courtesy of the US League for the Hard of Hearing shows) they can, if played loudly, come in at well-over 85 dB. So what's the safe solution for the iPod junkie?

• A safe volume means being able to hear what is going on around you at the same time as listening to the music
• Don't compensate for louder background noise by turning up the volume on your MP3 player
• Don't listen to your MP3 player for long, uninterrupted periods of time
• Consider custom ear pieces to reduce background noise therefore reducing the volume setting of the MP3 players

As music-lovers will know, concerts can be considerably louder than MP3 players. A normal rock concert is normally about 110-120 decibels and there will be damage over a period of time if you go to concerts regularly enough.

The Who made the Guiness Book of Records for their 120 dB concert at Charlton Athletic football ground in 1976. Today Who guitarist Pete Townshend has irreparable hearing loss. Interestingly, however, he blames wearing headphones during recording rather than loud gigs. (He's pictured in a thewho.net image wearing the offending cans.)

Either way, it wasn't worth it. The Who were blasted away by Motorhead as the world's loudest band in 1981 following a gig at Port Vale football ground. The crown was later claimed by AC/DC.

Talking of football grounds, the loudest stadium noise ever recorded by Guiness was 128 dBs - the equivalent to standing next to a jackhammer or power drill — thanks to the combined efforts of Denver Bronco's fans.

But here in the UK, Liverpool fans may have gone one better. Cardiff council officials measured a roar of 130.7 dBs during the 2005 Carling Cup Final. Liverpool lost 3-2 to Chelsea. Imagine the noise had they won.