Smoke Detector Decibel Levels

[Tom Robey]

Hi Dr. Nagler,

We've had an exchange about decibel levels a while back.

Well fast forward to the present, two days ago, all the smoke detectors in my apartment went off. (No fire, but stuff in the oven and a candle burning, despite no notice of anything in the air). That said, I frantically went around the apartment, opening the patio door, turning off the oven, checking the breaker box (no idea if that would have even worked!), looking for a fan, trying to find the apartment office # to call, among various other things.

The alarms all stopped about 7-8 minutes later. (At the time, I didn't leave because of the thought of the fire department showing up for nothing, thus my attempts to get the alarms to stop.) I've seen that smoke detectors could range anywhere from 65 to 120 decibels. These in my apartment were loud, but I have no idea at what level they were. Any thoughts of being in an environment for 7-8 minutes for decibels on the higher end of the range I listed? (My tinnitus is up, both 'sides'. And of course now I'm fighting feelings that are naturally manifesting themselves where I start to *feel* depressed.)

 

[Dr. Nagler]

Hello @Tom Robey. Sorry to hear about your incredibly unpleasant experience.

According to OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) 90% of workers can be exposed to a 115dB noise level for 15 minutes a day without concern about permanent auditory damage.

Let's see how that might apply to your situation. First of all, the 65-120dB range to which you refer to in your post would typically represent the dB level at the source, whereas the OSHA standards represent the dB level at your ears. The falloff is fairly pronounced by virtue of the inverse square law. Second, the OSHA standard is talking about daily exposure, whereas in your case it was an isolated episode. And last, I suspect that you made some effort to cover your ears with your hands during the time that the smoke detectors were screaming. The OSHA standard refers to unprotected ears.

So taking the above factors into consideration, I think it unlikely that you suffered any permanent auditory damage. I am not at all surprised that the noise aggravated your tinnitus, but I suspect that in time things will settle back down for you.

Hope this helps.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.