Golf provides a welcome challenge to those dedicating countless hours to fine-tune their game. In time, injuries related to repetitive stress and flexibility issues might force the most skilled golfer to modify their swing, but a new study released in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) presents a new set of health concerns for those hitting the links.
The study titled, “Is Golf Bad for Your Hearing?” focused on a case of a 55 year old man who developed tinnitus and hearing loss in his right ear after playing golf three days a week for eighteen months with a thin-faced titanium driver. After examination, his physicians ruled out the normal aging process and decided to assess his golf clubs.
The doctors evaluated the sound levels emitted from the club-ball impact of multiple clubs, titanium as well as older steel clubs. They found that all the titanium clubs tested exceeded safe noise limits (one at a level of 128 decibels), while only two of the six steel drivers posed a treat.
Often, noise-induced hearing loss results from continuous exposures to unsafe levels over a period of time. Noise-induced hearing loss may also occur instantly as a result of a sufficiently loud impact sound such as an explosion or feedback from a speaker. This is called acoustic trauma. Based on their study, the UK researchers believe the levels measured from newer titanium golf clubs may in fact pose a threat to golfers’ ears in the form of an impact-type exposure.
Further studies are planned but until more data is available, the researchers have recommended the use of hearing protection for those who use titanium drivers on a frequent basis.
