by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man wrote,
I mowed my lawn for the first time this year, and about halfway through the job my tinnitus began to get louder. I wore a pair of ear muffs rated at 25 db noise reduction, but my mower is not that loud to begin with. However, I did notice some minor vibrations in the mower handle, but truthfully it did not seem that bad. Have you ever heard of someone’s tinnitus getting worse due to using a push mower? Can vibrations from a push mower cause an increase in tinnitus? I wonder if I should consider a reel mower, or an electric model?
Loud lawnmowers can damage our ears—resulting in hearing loss and tinnitus. There is no doubt about that.
However, since your lawnmower is not a loud one—let’s say about 90 dB, it shouldn’t be causing your tinnitus to get louder—even without the earmuffs.
With the earmuffs, you’d only be hearing it at 65 dB and other sounds would be correspondingly less. In no way should this affect your hearing or cause tinnitus.
What I suspect happened is that your ears were being deprived of sounds so your brain turned up the internal volume and that made your tinnitus seem louder.
For example, you can get tinnitus from being in a soundproof room and not making any noise for an hour. Your brain doesn’t like being deprived of sounds and turns the internal volume up trying to hear something and eventually you hear tinnitus. Tinnitus from this cause typically goes away shortly after you come out of the soundproof room and begin hearing normally again.
Thinking back, “Was this your experience with the lawnmower and your increased tinnitus?” This is a good reason why you mustn’t overprotect your ears from all sounds—just from ear-damaging levels of sounds.
To this, the man explained, “Yes, I’d say so. On the other hand, I used a new gas powered trimmer with the same ear muffs, but I don’t recall my tinnitus getting louder that day until I used the mower. Maybe it was because the trimmer is louder than the mower.”
That is one distinct possibility. And the motor of the trimmer was closer to your ears too, which would make it even louder. Thus, in spite of your earmuffs, your ears were getting sufficient levels of sound to prevent your tinnitus from getting louder.
I’ve never heard of vibrations themselves causing tinnitus. I suppose theoretically they could, but in actual practice, I don’t think it happens. The vibrations from your mower are dampened by your hands, arms, body and neck—long before they reach your head. So your skull shouldn’t be subjected to vibrations severe enough to cause ear problems.
Rather than getting a quieter mower, I think all you need to do is use a lesser protection factor in your earmuffs. Depending on the volume of your mower, you may only need a 10 dB protection factor or so. All you’re trying to do is get sounds below 80 dB—not cutting them out altogether.
If you want to learn more about the many different things that can trigger tinnitus, or more about many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under control, check out my book, When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.
you are dead wrong, my friend, about the bones and skull not picking up bad vibes from mowers. I had to quit a good job in public water systems cz of too much mowing, in fact. I had no prior history of ear ringing issues before th work, but only weeks into the mowing, I developed ringing so bad it was terrifying. Even after stopping mowing altogether, I had to wait another 4 months before my head calmed down. Th ringing died out, completely, and I never went back to mowing again , which meant quitting th job. vibration is th only plausible cause here, since th mowrrs are not loud and ppe was implemented in varying degree, to examine th effects. dont assume u understand ALL th complexities of vibr dampening as it applies to human hearing.
Hi Rupp:
We’re not talking about whether your bones and skull can pick up vibrations from a lawnmower or not, we’re talking about whether you got tinnitus from it. What kind of a lawnmower were you using–a walk behind one or a riding one? You say that it wasn’t noisy, so I don’t see how you could get tinnitus from it. Lawnmowers don’t have excess vibration compared to a chainsaw. I’ve used chainsaws for hours so that my hands and arms tingled by the time I finished, yet that vibration did not affect my tinnitus, so I have trouble believing that the slight vibration that you get from a lawnmower would be enough to cause tinnitus. I may be wrong, but you’ve not convinced me that your tinnitus was just from the vibrations of the lawnmower and not from some other factors you’ve not mentioned.
I’m not assuming that I know everything about vibrations and tinnitus like you seem to be implying you do. I’m open to being convinced–so prove to me that you are right.
Cordially,
Neil
I’ve came to the same conclusion that sound was travelling through my arms so I installed sponge from an old mattress on the handle of the lawn mower with electrical tape to hold it on. That helped.
I get muffled hearing, whenever I hear my neighbours mowing their lawn with an electric mower, but even worse is the sound of the hoover. It takes a few minutes to go away. But its so uncomfortable I will leave the house rather than hear humming sounds. Is this normal?
Hi Tali:
No, it’s definitely not normal or Hoover would be out of business. How long has this been going on for? And are you sensitive to any other sounds?
Cordially,
Neil
Noise aggravates my tinnitus. I have a Deere commercial zero-turn and even with earplugs fully in and the best 3M headset, I get bad tinnitus flare-up. Even a short time on that mower does me in.
It is definitely not just because I’m sleeping (or trying to). I can tell a difference even when using our electric push mower for a short time and then trying to sleep at night.
Computer fans and/or electronics are the worst. Even with headphones and the machine in another room, I end up with warbling/whistling sounds that are intolerable. I had built a quiet water-cooled system and had to give up on it. The coil whine from my GPU and possibly power supply likely also caused trouble.
I also get a flare-up from the ultrasonic dental cleaning tool.
Some noise, like highway road noise with the windows down partially, is much more tolerated although enough of that can also cause a flare-up.
The severity of my tinnitus definitely comes and goes, depending upon the noise exposure of the week and day. When I listen to music with headphones I have to use Apple’s Audio-Midi utility to cut the volume below what the OS slider allows.
Hi Justin:
From what you have said, it seems that you have reactive tinnitus. If you haven’t already done so, read my article on the subject at https://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/reactive-tinnitus/ and let me know whether this is like what you are experiencing.
I don’t recommend using any ultrasonic dental equipment as it can cause horrible tinnitus afterwards.
If your tinnitus flares up, how long does it take to return to normal after the noise abates–instantly or almost instantly, a few hours, overnight, or longer?
Cordially,
Neil