Trying to hear audio over loud ambient noise can cause noise-induced hearing loss.

Evidence

There is also the danger that the overall sound level being presented (wanted signal plus the unwanted background noise) could even cause noise-induced hearing loss (see Section 2.5) depending on the volume of the wanted signal that is set. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2554

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to Section 2.5 on noise-induced hearing loss and to any material on loudness summation and equal-loudness contours.