decibels
The most common cause of hearing loss is exposure to loud sounds. Loud sounds can damage hair cells inside the ears. Hair cells change sound waves to electrical signals that the brain can interpret as sounds. Louder sounds, which have greater intensity than softer sounds, can damage hair cells more quickly than softer sounds. You can see the relationship between sound intensity, exposure time, and hearing loss in the following Figure below . The intensity of sounds is measured in decibels dB .