Compressed air: Is it dangerous?

[Crushaderdk]

Hello. So yesterday I had my friend over and he discovered that I had a can of compressed air for cleaning my pc. He wanted to prank me so he blew some compressed air into my ear and I immediately noticed that it affected my hearing for a couple of minutes before returning back to normal. This got me thinking. Can compressed air when used wrongly cause permanent damage to the body? 

[kelvinhall05]

Basically anything when used wrongly can cause permanent damage to the body. So to answer your question, yes.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Yes, it can. But pretty much anything can cause permanent damage to your body if it goes somewhere it's not mean to. 

[jiyeon]

I assumed compressed air was just literally pure air. The air trouble you experienced was probably the force of which the air went into your ear and rattled your eardrums for a while.

[Crushaderdk]

5 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Yes, it can. But pretty much anything can cause permanent damage to your body if it goes somewhere it's not mean to. 

 

6 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Basically anything when used wrongly can cause permanent damage to the body. So to answer your question, yes.

Do you guys reckon that I was lucky to not get a permanent hearing damage or would that be very unlikely for a single burst of compressed air?

[kelvinhall05]

6 hours ago, Crushaderdk said:

 

Do you guys reckon that I was lucky to not get a permanent hearing damage or would that be very unlikely for a single burst of compressed air?

I think it's rather unlikely. I've gotten multiple bursts and my hearing is fine. You'd probably get more hearing damage from listening to loud music with headphones.

[Crushaderdk]

3 minutes ago, seoz said:

I assumed compressed air was just literally pure air. The air trouble you experienced was probably the force of which the air went into your ear and rattled your eardrums for a while.

Thank you for the explanation.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, Crushaderdk said:

 

Do you guys reckon that I was lucky to not get a permanent hearing damage or would that be very unlikely for a single burst of compressed air?

Compressed air doesn't have nearly enough pressure to really cause damage to your ears unless the tube is pushed into the ear drum, basically. 

 

Your hearing going funny is likely the same as when the air pressure around you changes, such as when on an aeroplane. 

[IdiotPenguin]

If you blow it on your skin long enough you can get frostbite

[Crushaderdk]

Thank you all for commenting on this thread. I wish you all a great day/night.

[SolarNova]

34 minutes ago, Crushaderdk said:

Hello. So yesterday I had my friend over and he discovered that I had a can of compressed air for cleaning my pc. He wanted to prank me so he blew some compressed air into my ear and I immediately noticed that it affected my hearing for a couple of minutes before returning back to normal. This got me thinking. Can compressed air when used wrongly cause permanent damage to the body? 

Im not going to presume your age so im going to assume you know how ears work, how hearing works, so no explenation .. just an answer.

YES , yes it can cause permenent harm.

[Pixel5]

id say if you feel like something is wrong with your ear you should let it get checked out, what he did is incredibly stupid.

loud noises or more precisely the sound waves of these noises can cause permanent hearing loss, if they are loud enough even after one single time.

blowing air into your ear is essentially not much different from a sound wave and is extremely dangerous.

 

Beside hearing loss this can also affect your balance.