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A comment on I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a toilet. Parent comment

Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by polack on Saturday March 31, 2018 @03:42PM (#16724801)
When I was doing my military service another conscript fired his rifle down into the ground as we where standing close together without any hearing protection on. Seconds later our captain orders us to put the hearing protection on and leads us down to a completely dark cellar with beds in it. We then had to lay there for 48 hours in complete silence with noice canceling ear protection on with only breaks for toilet visits and quick supervised snacks. Two weeks later we all took hearing tests that got compared with the tests we took when we joined the military and none of us had any permanent damage.

Not sure the complete silence helped with healing, but the science behind the decision to have us do that was that the little hairs in the ear heals faster if it’s not stimulated.

To this day I still think about not exposing myself to too much sound after I have heard some high noice, like someone dropping a metal weight in the gym.

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by andyjohnson0 on Saturday March 31, 2018 @05:44PM (#16725330)
Do soldiers wear hearing protection in live combat conditions? Seems like they'd quickly end-up with severe hearing damage if they didn't.
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by polack on Saturday March 31, 2018 @05:55PM (#16725377)
Yes, modern soldiers wear “comtac” hearing protection with integrated microphones that pick up speech but block out the noise. So you can still communicate decent by shouting even though there is heavy fire going on around you.
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by Bromskloss on Saturday March 31, 2018 @06:13PM (#16725437)
What about before such things were available? Did everyone get damaged hearing the first day?
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by polack on Saturday March 31, 2018 @06:36PM (#16725534)
My grandfather told me on his first day in the military he had to stand (without any hearing protection) next to the anti-aircraft cannons when they opened fire to “train” the ears. He did not have much hearing left when he was older...
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by bigiain on Saturday March 31, 2018 @10:11PM (#16726330)
My dad used to tell a story about when he got a hearing test as part of an employment medical fairly late in life, and the audiologist asks him "You're left handed, aren't you?" because he could see the typical signs of rifle shooting related hearing loss in his left ear. Turns out dad wasn't actually left handed, but shot a rifle at school cadets 30 years earlier left handed because he could only close his right eye independently - it was easier to just shoot left handed than to try to learn how to look through the sights with his right eye.
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by TheSpiceIsLife on Sunday April 01, 2018 @06:30AM (#16727627)
A bit off topic, but anyway, are you aware of cross-dominance?[1]

I'm left handed in most things but right eye dominant.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by Bromskloss on Sunday April 01, 2018 @07:53AM (#16727812)
Does ocular dominance have anything to do with the ability to close one's eyes?
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by chiph on Sunday April 01, 2018 @10:23PM (#16731838)
Pretty much. You watch any film from the WW-II era and only artillery crews wore any sort of hearing protection (cotton wads stuffed in their ears). But many of them gave up doing even that after a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuMytPAKQyU

Dad had significant hearing loss from his time in the infantry during the war.

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by Erik816 on Saturday March 31, 2018 @06:24PM (#16725487)
I'm guessing this 48 hour timeout was as much about discipline as restoring any possible hearing loss.
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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by polack on Saturday March 31, 2018 @06:49PM (#16725585)
I actually don’t think so. That would be a form of collective punishment which is strictly forbidden and the officers was really careful about not crossing that line. Was a bit chocking for me to learn that, I feel like American movies have lied to me my entire life when the military didn’t let the whole platoon do push-ups every time someone made a mistake :)

The guy who fired his weapon got a fine and was eventually kicked out though...

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by scrumper on Monday April 02, 2018 @11:18AM (#16735222)
Do you mind sharing which country and how long ago was this? That's quite a strong risk-averse & duty-of-care-oriented response to the incident. Was this a teenage military service thing?

(I can see your username but I don't want to assume.)

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by tokai on Sunday April 01, 2018 @01:00PM (#16729256)
When I was a conscript, my initial hearing test indicated a small hearing loss. Before i joined up I had worked as a busboy at a nightclub, where I never wore hearing protection. Us conscripts with documented hearing loss had to wear double ear protection[0] on the shooting range, and during field practice with blanks. The test I got when I left the military shown my hearing had returned to normal. Youth might have something to do with it, but my experience mirrors yours in that silence can heal some damage.

[0] Earmuffs over earplugs. Conscripts normal hearing only had to wear earplugs.

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Re:I almost lost my hearing from the lid on the tank of a to... by toomanybeersies on Saturday March 31, 2018 @08:14PM (#16725909)
I'm a sport shooter and on occasion I've shot rifles and shotguns without hearing protection.

The hearing loss dissipates after a day, even in normal conditions. I'm sure that it's bad for you long term, but short term your ears tend to fix themselves up pretty quick.

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