How Loud Is Someone Yelling?

Last week I had a coworker turn and yell right into my ear while he was standing right next to me. His mouth was probably 1 to 2 feet away from my ear. Thank god I was wearing earplugs at the time, but it has me wondering just how damaging that can be.

I think it will be alright, but my right ear (the one he hollered into) often has additional tones that come and go; so it's sometimes hard for me to tell what's new and what are just normal fluctuations.

 

Today I had a person sneezing 4 feet from my unprotected ear... Luckily, when he sneezed a second time, I was able to press on my tragus and get some protection... How loud are sneezes?

 

I'm pretty sure you both realize that what you are asking is akin to "how long is a piece of rope" right?

 

@Alue

I have to ask why they were yelling right into your ear. I'm assuming this person isn't one of your favorites at work.

 

I just experimented with this. Percussively barking and screaming at the absolute top of my lungs, I was able to get a dB meter to read 131 right at my lips, but from 1.5' away I couldn't get it over 109.

So, obnoxious but not dangerous given exposure time, and since you had earplugs in, totally not a worry. I doubt your coworker can shout as loud as me, either

 

My question was rhetorical. I think that what matters is not how loud a sound is, but whether or not it has an impact on your T.

 

https://www.theclassroom.com/decibel-level-normal-speech-8599569.html

"Shouting levels can vary, especially between men and women. Women typically have a lower effective level of loudness than men and may only be able to shout at around 75 decibels. Some men, on the other hand, can shout at over 100 decibels. Approximately 15 percent of women cannot raise their voices above 75 decibels while 15 percent of men can shout over 96 decibels."

With earplugs in you should be plenty protected.

 

People's sneezes can very quite a bit. Some are quiet sneezers while others pretty much shout when they sneeze. Most are somewhere in between.

 

Thanks for the figures. I think realistically it had to have been at least a foot away. 130 is pretty concerning if it was without hearing protection, I could see how that could cause problems.

Sometimes I think my ears react to me having to project my own voice with earplugs in all day as much as anything else. I'm not sure how to get around that, but it seems I'm dammed if I do and dammed if I don't.

 

The world record for a shout was recorded at 121.7 dBA by a school teacher named Annalisa Flanagan. This was done in 1994 and nobody has come close to this since, including her. Her average since is said to be around 115 dBA which is still crazy loud for a human voice.

If someone isn’t trying to break a record and is shouting with an average intensity, it’s likely to be less than 100 dBA. The record doesn’t mention distance but I would assume it’s directly into, or a least in close proximity to, a sufficiently accurate SPL meter.

 

The person shouting so hard may also cause damage to his own hearing

 

This is very true, my shouting is the cause of my first major tinnitus of spike which I still have four years later.

 

You'd think so, but there's neurological and mechanical mechanisms that keeps this from happening.

https://www.livescience.com/586-screaming-deaf.html

I yell at the top of my lungs a lot, it's called "having a kid and living in the woods". "NO DO NOT PICK UP THE FOX POOP! NO DO NOT TOUCH THE CHAINSAW!"

 

It's good to have some numbers, but without a distance from the source the numbers are kind of meaningless. Either that or @linearb is the new world record holder. I recall shouting directly into a db meter a few years ago and got somewhere in that range (115-120).

That being said, I don't know the exact distance in my case either. We were standing right next to each other, though, and my head was turned to the side.

 

My right ear (the one shouted at) has been bothering me more this past week, but it's not outside the normal range. Maybe it's cumulative stress, I really don't know. I have a tone that fluctuates a lot in intensity in my right ear.

 

Is the lesson there that if you realize you are going to be a victim of an acoustic trauma and have no option to plug your ears on time, then you should scream at the top of your lungs to trigger your natural protection? (I'm only half joking)

 

Side topic, but is it almost unheard of for people to be lacking or have an impaired acoustic reflex? I've often wondered if mine is the same as other peoples, even before tinnitus and hyperacusis I've always been sensitive to loud noises and things like concerts were too loud for me to be able to enjoy.

I've always refused the acoustic reflex test for good reason.

 

How can someone's own shout damage their hearing?

Were you shouting a lot? And the spike has never gone down?

 

I've never done an acoustic reflex test. What happens with your acoustic reflex? How can I know mine is okay?

 

Nope all it took was one shout which lasted less than a second, but it was a shout at the top of my lungs and in the car so it was an enclosed space. Two hours or so later all hell broke loose with a massive tinnitus spike.

 

I see, so I take it you never shout anymore now

 

Really late to find this thread but if you're still around, what do you mean, exactly, by the tone 'fluctuates'? Do you mean in volume and intensity, or do you mean the actual sound? As in, your T sound itself goes up and down, if that makes sense?

 

The loudest human scream recorded is 129 dB by Jill Drake. Please be careful with people yelling or talking loud. I have one friend who talks loud and by measuring his normal talking sound my sound meter shows 90/95 dB.

 

What about children? My child yelled directly into my ear.

 

They can be quite loud and shrill. This is controversial but I think the proximity of the source can make a sound worse than another of equivalent decibels but produced further away. Many people (including myself) got tinnitus/hyperacusis from headphones used at a volume that should theoretically be safe. Some will argue that this is because of duration (most use headphones for hours) but my hyperacusis was triggered by a short event. To summarize, please be especially careful about noises right next to your ear.

 

This is something I was thinking about earlier. I was riding in the car earlier with a family member and she was yelling into the phone since the person on the other line was hard of hearing. I was only about a foot away and so it sounded really loud and of course being in a small, enclosed vehicle didn't help.

Any idea how loud yelling would be roughly a foot away in a car? Duration time was about 10 minutes and I have no idea if such a situation would be 100+ decibels.