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Air bags designed to protect car drivers and passengers in crashes could also
deafen them. Beat Hohmann, head of acoustic research at the Swiss National
Accident Insurance Organisation in Lucerne, has found that the bang of an air
bag inflating produces 132 decibels of sound energy. “The noise is the same as
two shots from the Swiss army assault rifle, and we know even one shot can cause
hearing damage,” he says. The Swiss insurance industry has recorded three cases
of hearing loss or tinnitus after accidents in which air bags inflated.