Riding in Convertibles may damage your hearing
Convertibles are slower than the hard top rides that we have in the market. They are also not very practical and not very safe when you look at their architecture. A cruise with the top down on a late summer afternoon makes all the unlikable details negligible. A new study though points to long term use of convertibles contributing to hearing damage.
A study was presented before the meeting of the American Academy of Otalaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation held in San Diego recently. The research concludes that riding with the windows down for exposes people to high noise levels which may damage hearing in the long run.
A British doctor who is himself a fan of convertibles tested some top down rides for their noise levels while cruising at 50 to 70 miles. The average noise level was recorded at 88-90 decibels which is about 4 to 5 decibels above the safe range for the human ears.
Slowing down to try and decrease the level of noise will also not work since the noise is coming from the road traffic which includes the engines, tires, and other cars and trucks on the road. Driving slower will expose you to the noise of the overtaking vehicles and subject you to higher noise levels.
Convertible owners can roll up the window a bit so the noise from the wind which makes most of the 85 decibels can be decreased.
More studies are being suggested to look into the noise levels before and after driving. A follow up study for those who are driving enclosed vehicles with rolled down windows will also be conducted.
Via our friends at the Car Blog!