Adelaide racing car driver and business owner Brenton Griguol first noticed his tinnitus six years ago.

“I fell asleep on the couch one night, woke up and I thought, have I just been to Led Zeppelin concert, a Deep Purple concert? Because it’s that same ringing in your ears,” Griguol recalled.

“From that moment on, it was there continuously. It’s just a constant ring in your ear and it doesn’t end.

Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an external sound source.

“If you’re in a quiet environment, [the ringing] tends to get louder. When you’re in a loud environment, it tends to get less.”

Race driver Brenton Griguol suffers from workplace noise induced tinnitus

Griguol believes his hearing damage stems, not from motor racing, but from growing up around panel repair shops where engine noise and loud banging were constants.

“It’s just from walking around workshops all the time from when I was a young boy,” he said.

“[Motor racing] is highly protected – you’ve got to wear the correct apparel, especially if you’re a driver.

“The only noise you’ll hear is your race engineer through the intercom.”

Griguol said his tinnitus has made him acutely aware of occupational noise induced hearing loss and spurred him to ensure the work environments within his own motor industry businesses are safe.

“People have got to wear ear muffs in a workshop environment. And I mean, not just the [cheap] specials, they’ve got to be proper ear muffs.

“I supply that. If I supply it, I know I’m buying the right product and it’s not a matter of cost of the product.”

That said, he still gets some pushback from employees. “You can make it mandatory that they wear [hearing protection], but sometimes some staff just will wear them for a day and then not worry about it again.”

Australian businesses are legally obliged to provide a safe working environment, which includes reducing the risk of occupational noise induced hearing loss.

Worryingly, permanent damage can occur after only a short exposure to very loud noise.

The inner ear, or cochlear, is lined with thousands of hair cells that are key to hearing, translating the vibration of the sounds into electrical impulses.

These impulses travel along the auditory nerve where the information is decoded and perceived as sounds. Damage to the hair cells is irreversible and results in tinnitus and, in almost every case, hearing loss.

It is likely that Griguol would have been repeatedly subjected to noise of around 100 dB while in car workshops when he was young; just 15 minutes at this level can cause permanent damage to the ear.

As noise intensity increases, the time to do damage shortens. Safe Work Australia advises that two hours of noise at 91 dB produces the same risk as for 85 dB over 8 hours.

Hearing damage can also occur from exposure to ototoxic chemicals, such as paint, carbon monoxide and even some antibiotics. In a noisy environment, their detrimental effect on hearing can increase.

Source: Safework Australia

Currently, there is no cure for tinnitus. However, researchers at Flinders University are working on a novel research project that involves non-invasively stimulating the brain to reduce or eliminate it.

The team is being led by Flinders University’s professor of audiology, Professor Raj Shekhawat who is a clinical audiologist by training and heads up Australia’s only problem-based learning audiology Masters of Science program.

“In the past, people used to think that ringing in the ear is a problem of the ear,” Shekhawat explained.

“But lately, research has revealed that it’s not only the ear’s problem – actually, it’s all related in the brain. Because that’s where the actual perception and decoding of the sound happens.”

Professor Shekhawat and his team are using very small electrodes and non-invasive hi-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to target the auditory cortex, which is located a short distance behind the ear, and the prefrontal cortex near the forehead.

“The hypothesis is that by stimulating the brain non-invasively, it can basically compensate or disrupt the networks that are helping the brain to perceive tinnitus,” he said.

“That is why a lot of research up to this point has shown that when we are using brain stimulation, for some people, it instantly reduces the perception of their tinnitus.”

He said this global research, so far, has not provided long-lasting relief, with the tinnitus returning to the same level of perception after a couple of days or weeks.

“What we are trying to do in this Flinders research trial is, instead of just using one session, on one day, we are using a couple of sessions across a few weeks’ time to see if we can make that impact last longer.”

So far, the team’s pilot studies have uncovered the optimum intensity, duration and location for the stimulation.

“In [our] research, we are looking into different areas of the brain. So, we are looking at the auditory area where the sounds are perceived.

“At the same time, we are also looking at the area of the brain where emotions are perceived.”

Professor Shekhawat said this was to see whether the associated distress or annoyance of the tinnitus can also be reduced.

The trial began last year and is a long-term (longitudinal) study.

In the coming months, they will also test the feasibility of remote brain stimulation, shipping the devices to tinnitus-sufferers who can participate from home.

He said if that trial shows positive results, in the future it could mean the creation of a biofeedback device that links up to something like a Fitbit.

He was enthusiastic, but cautious, “It’s early days, but we have started.”

Meanwhile, he reiterated that prevention is the best path forward.

“It’s extremely important to understand that noise exposure can actually result into damage to those hair cells [of the inner ear], which can be one hundred per cent preventable.”

As for Griguol, he said he will see Can:Do Hearing about his tinnitus and hearing in general. But he seemed to be relatively accepting of his situation.

“You speak to other people in the same age bracket that have got [tinnitus] and you do the grumpy old man thing. You just have a whinge about it.

“It’s one of those things… you just know it’s there.”

Hearing Awareness Week is 1–7 March 2023. Visit Can:Do Hearing for tinnitus support and hearing tests.

To join the Flinders University tinnitus trial, email [email protected]