How Loud Are the Loudest Store Alarms?

Yesterday I was entering a local store (Lidl, maybe some of you have it in your country) and the lady in front of me set the alarm off! On the entrance..

She just stood there and I was behind her right next to the alarm sensor pillar. I needed to escape it so I have to go around her even closer to the alarm and it was just in line with my ears! I'm 168 cm high. Today my right ear hurts.. and I'm just a wrack...

I have T & H.. and worry about hearing damage this may caused as it is said that a sudden loud high freq sounds can cause damage.. I have wrote an email to the store asking about how loud is that entrance alarm but I doubt they'll answer.. maybe someone knows.. It was louder than usual store alarms and unusually piercing

 

You did not say that your tinnitus got any worse, so I wouldnt be too worried.

 

It is more noticable and with some slight new sounds but I figure it is a reaction which may and may not stay..

 

I downloaded a dbs reader on my phone and i use it all the time. Those alarms are pretty loud.

 

I love lidl lol! So cheap, but the products are quality! Anyway, store alarms are really loud...Anyway, wouldn't know how loud they are in terms of DB.

 

Don't mention.. I feel like sueing the stores for this blasted alarms tat go'off every 10'seconds for no reason! I now always make sure my hands are free and each time'I'enter a store or go out of them I cover my ears until I'm at the safe distance, just in case. I had a similar worry once but I didn't find an answer. Sb told me they're not louder than 90 dcb but I can't know. It also depends on the store I guess.'if you cover your ears and you can't hear them anymore, that means they're not loud. Just that the sound is high so more annoying and noticible. Still, if you covered your ears and it wasn't more than 100 db for a few secs I don't think you coukd damage your ears. Are you ok yet?

 

How are you now? Any better?

I guess the loudness of these alarms varies, as I don't remember them being that loud.
Once, before my T started, I set off an alarm* and wasn't bothered by it, even though I've never liked even moderately loud sounds.


*I had a guitar cord without the plugs in my bag. This coil apparently set off the alarm at this department store. After I was in, I told an employee in the middle of the store about it, who told me just to go through the gates again. When I did, I thought it was really strange how no-one seemed to care.

 

I say carry a bottle of emergency NAC with you as it helps protect your hearing! Take it as soon as you're exposed to very loud noise!

 

I was in Halfords today and one of the GPS units on display was bleeping continuously, as loud as a smoke alarm. Nobody gave a stuff about it. How odd how everyone has been de sensitised to noise pollution these days...

 

I woild say ignorant. That was me three and a half years ago. House alarm went off and my big windows were open, it was echoing all over the house and I didn't mind I was running around trying to find code for it. And it left me with T and H. So now I run from every kind of alarms.

 

@iAzra
I work for a security company that supplies intruder and fire alarms and I believe that they can be as loud as 100db but that's if you are stood with your ear right too the alarm I think but I guess it depends on what alarm they have. When a customer phones and there alarm is going off im pretty glad I'm not where they are!

 

I reckon alarm in stores are less loud than the fire or thief alarms ? If I have a house one day, I definitely won't install any. I always cover my ears when crossing the doorstep of a store, but today I got 'caught' - I forgot for a moment cause there were so many people there ( first day of sales) and this blasted alarm went off maybe 1 m away from me. H&M store. Gosh, I really hate this stuff. Especially that sometimes, like today, it would ring every 2 mins. What about the guards who stand right next to them every day for 8 h? T guaranteed ? Otherwise, I hope exposed for 1 or 2 secs ( before we cover the ears) can't do the harm?

 

It is very unlikely that such brief exposures will do any harm or everyone should have hearing damage and that is not the case.

Annoying sounds are not the same as damaging sounds.

 

The fire alarm at work caused my tinnitus. They gave me workman's comp but then said it meets osha standards (20 minutes of continuous noise) and they weren't going to do anything. That alarm is set at 104 dB in a small concrete office. I view my workplace as hazardous.

A note: decibels are logarithmic so a step of 3 dB is twice as loud; a step of 10 dB is ten times as loud.