"Are bass sounds less damaging?" Here ya go!
Given how the inner ear works, noise induced hearing loss generally occurs at the frequency of the noise. As the sound waves travel through the cochlea they undergo frequency dispersion. This means that a low frequency sound (bass) only "travels" the whole length of the cochlea all the way to the apex while high frequency sounds are transmitted only to the base. This means that low frequency sounds are slightly more "dangerous" to the inner ear than high frequency sounds.
Given how the inner ear works, noise induced hearing loss generally occurs at the frequency of the noise. As the sound waves travel through the cochlea they undergo frequency dispersion. This means that a low frequency sound (bass) only "travels" the whole length of the cochlea all the way to the apex while high frequency sounds are transmitted only to the base. This means that low frequency sounds are slightly more "dangerous" to the inner ear than high frequency sounds.