• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Contact | 360-778-1266

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Reference
    • Glossary of Ear Terms
    • Drug Pronunciation Guide
    • Looping Information
    • “Learn About Hearing”
    • Useful Links
  • Museum
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • Alerting Devices
    • Assistive Listening Devices
    • Books
    • Loop Systems
    • Speechreading CDs
    • Telephones, amplified
    • Visor Cards

Hearing Loss and Air Bags

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Air bags save lives—and for that we are definitely thankful. They also destroy hearing—and that is not so nice. Here is Lisa’s story.

Last week I was involved in what should have been a minor car accident. I wasn’t paying attention and “gently” hit the car in front of me stopped for a light.

What happened next was terrifying. The inside of the car seemed to explode in a deafening roar. I had an unimaginable pain in both ears and considerable bleeding from my ear canals. I also had a very loud ringing and was virtually deaf.

I was taken to the hospital where it was quickly determined that my eardrums had ruptured. I was referred to an ENT who said they should heal in 2-3 weeks, but possibly with scar tissue that would affect my ability to hear low sounds. As for the ringing, he said that could be permanent. He also said I had suffered inner ear damage that would affect my high-frequency hearing, although he said it was hard to tell how much. He concluded by saying I would need to face life “hearing impaired” and may need to look at hearing aids.

I have always protected my hearing and never would have thought about going to loud concerts or auto races without effective noise protection. I’m only 22 and I can barely hear conversation in a quiet room. With background noise, I am almost deaf.(1)

Lisa is not alone. Many other people have also experienced tinnitus and/or hearing loss when air bags deploy. In fact, the results of researcher Richard Price’s studies indicates that a whopping 17% of the people exposed to deployed air bags will experience permanent hearing loss. That’s a lot of people—almost 1 in every 5 people exposed to air bags going off!

Here’s another surprising discovery. His data also shows that contrary to what experts previously thought, airbag deployment is more damaging to our ears when we have the windows rolled down.

This is because the higher pressure generated in the closed cabin actually prevents greater damage to the ear. The pressure causes a displacement in the middle ear that stiffens the stapes, a small bone outside the inner ear. This stiffening limits the transmission of energy to the inner ear, where hearing damage takes place. In airbag experiments where the cabin is completely sealed and pressure is even higher, hearing damage is reduced even further.

Incidentally, Price’s study only included cars sold in the United States. American cars have larger, more powerful airbags than cars sold in Europe. Hence, cars with smaller airbags sold in other parts of the world would likely pose less auditory danger when tested under identical circumstances.(2)

The moral of the story, and another good reason to drive carefully and avoid accidents, especially “fender benders,” is that an air bag going off causes just as much damage to your ears whether you are going 15 miles an hour (and serious injuries are unlikely) or 80 miles an hour (where hearing loss may be the least of your worries)!
__________

(1) Hearing Loss Web Forum: Issues: Air bags ruined my life. Accessed online at http://www.hearinglossweb.com/discus/messages/12/733.html?FridayJune1020050444pm.

(2) As reported in The Hearing Review 2007-07-10. Taken from: Price Richard. Intense impulse noise: hearing conservation’s poison gas. Paper presented at: Annual Conference of the National Hearing Conservation Association, February 16, 2007.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Genevieve Raaijmakers-Besancon says

    December 21, 2015 at 9:26 PM

    I have experienced the same thing 2 weeks ago and it was really scary, I didn’ t know till now that air bag could cause so much ear damage. I have tinitus in both ear, but strangly it happenned 4 days after the accident. I went to my doctor who send me to a ear specialist, she said that my tinitus can go away but also can become permanent. I had no emergency treatment after the crash because my ear problems happenned 4 days later. Now I am in a kind of standby since the accident and I pray everyday that my tinitus will not be permanent and affect my quality of life. It’s true air bag can save lives but at a very high price.
    Sorry for my english, it’ s not my mothertongue and thank you for your article.

    Reply
  2. dani says

    July 8, 2020 at 9:15 AM

    Did the tinntius go away? I am having same problem. Should I take steroids?

    Reply
  3. Jan says

    August 7, 2024 at 11:37 AM

    We had a head on collision in March and because of the impact all our air bags deployed. I noticed my right ear felt like it was stopped up. I went to my ENT doctor and he did hearing test that revealed my right ear has inner ear damage and hearing loss . I go back to my ENT Doctor again in October and praying my hearing has improved.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Glossary Navigation

  • Full List of Glossary Terms
  • A to Z Index

Footer

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].