Yellowknife (Aug 01/03) - Stop what you are doing right now and listen. The delicate hair cells of your inner ear may be filtering anything from a passing truck to the squeal of your computer.

Yellowknife Public Works employee Mark Phillips wears ear plugs to protect his hearing from the constant noise generated by his lawn mower. - Merle Robillard/NNSL photo

Noises bombard us daily, coming from unsuspecting locales. We even have a name for noise produced by our technological society -- white noise.

The ear can handle many different noises all at once, but damage occurs when you repeatedly abuse your aural senses.

An extreme example is the driver who cranks his music loud enough to shake the spoiler on his Honda hatchback, as well as the pavement on Franklin Avenue.

According to the League for the Hard of Hearing League, sound is measured by the intensity of decibels and the length of exposure.

Continuous exposure to noise above 85 decibels will eventually harm your hearing, according to the League 's Web site.

Did you know that a normal conversation measures 60 decibels? That a hair dryer measures between 60 and 95 decibels?

Grinding coffee beans each morning sends out 70-80 decibels into the kitchen. An ambulance siren measures at 120 decibels, well over the recommended intake.

At that level, less than 15 minutes of exposure is damaging, according to the League.

Ringing in your ears after cutting the lawn once is fine, but repeated exposure will cause permanent hearing damage.

"Noise levels in society are going up, and that's a potential danger", says local audiologist Alvilda Douglas.

She sees a lot of damage in Yellowknife because of hunting. Only one ear is affected, says Douglas, because it only takes a few rifle or shotgun shots at 150 decibels to damage hearing.

Douglas recommends foam earplugs for continuous noise, such as a concert or construction work. Ear muffs are useful for sudden noises, like a gun shot.

Protecting your hearing is important, but with all this noise, maybe we need to protect our sanity and find some peace and quiet.