Long term exposure to noise can lead to loss of hearing. The relative loudness of sounds is measured in decibels. Just to give you an idea of what this means. The sound of a whisper is thirty decibels, while a normal conversation is sixty decibels. The noise of vacuum cleaner makes is around eighty five decibels. The danger zone, the risk of injury begins at around ninety. Continual exposure to sound above ninety decibels can damage your hearing loud noises, especially when they come at you every day. All this noise can damage the delicate hair cells in your inner ear. Lots of everyday noises are bad for us in the long run. For example, a car horn sounds at around one hundred decibels. A rock band at close range is one hundred and twenty five decibels. A jet engine at close range is one of the worst culprits at an ear busting one hundred and forty decibels. The first thing to go is your high frequency hearing, where you detect the consonant sounds in words. That's why a person with hearing loss can hear voices, but has trouble understanding what's being said.