What do Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Chris Martin and Ozzy Osbourne have in common? Aside from being epic rockstars, they all suffer from significant hearing loss in the form of tinnitus, permanent ringing of the ears. It’s easy to understand why. Decades of loud concerts and blasting the radio have taken a toll on their hearing.

We all have tiny hairs deep in our ears, located in a spiraling organ called the cochlea. When we hear a sound, these hairs vibrate and translate that information as a nerve signal to our brain. But when they vibrate too aggressively from loud or sustained sounds, they can break leading to nerve damage like tinnitus. Tinnitus is a musician’s worst nightmare.

I go to a lot of concerts. All genres, jazz, classical, dubstep: it concerns me that I rarely see other people using earplugs at these shows. Yes, cheap earplugs negatively impact audio quality, but for $30 you can get decent earplugs that sound great and protect your ears. An audiologist can create custom-fitting earplugs that sound fantastic.

Some concerts I’ve been to are scary loud, even making my ears sore through earplugs. I feel horrible for the music lovers who don’t know these loud sounds are permanently hurting their hearing. According to the American Tinnitus Association, 50 million Americans are afflicted with prolonged tinnitus.

And it’s not just concerts. Everyone uses earbuds/headphones. Try not to listen to music louder than halfway on your phone. It’s not just loudness. It is really important to consider the duration. If you listen to music at a moderate volume for long enough, it will do permanent damage.

The decibel, dB, is a unit designed to measure sound intensity. Like the Richter scale, it is logarithmic; 40 dB is 10 times louder than 30 dB. For context, a whisper is 30 dB, the loudest rock concerts are 120 dB and a rocket launch can be 200 dB or more. You can measure dB with an app on your phone.

The CDC recommends reducing the intensity of sounds when possible and reducing the length of exposure to sounds above 85 dB. Sometimes just giving your ears a 5-20 minute break can help tremendously. If in a loud place without earplugs, take frequent breaks to a quieter area. After extreme exposure, at least 18 hours of quiet is required to maximize recovery. It’s important to get your hearing tested regularly, especially if you’re a musician.

I’m worried that we have a multi- generation tinnitus epidemic unfolding in front of us. If you have teenagers, monitor how loud they listen to music and educate them on the importance of limiting its intensity and duration. It’s natural for our hearing to degrade over time. We don’t need to increase its deterioration with excessive noise.

In conclusion, listen to your ears. They know what they want. They want earplugs.

Jack Gaffney is a local musician and piano teacher. He can be reached at JackGaffney.com.