Is it safe to use a portable air horn inside a house?
July 31, 2021 10:46 AM Subscribe
I bought a small air horn to use inside my house in the event of a break-in.
These horns are sold as personal safety devices, to scare off dogs and bears, and all have volumes of 110-120. Air horns are used at indoor sporting events (basketball and Olympic swimming, for ex.)
My Googling has found nothing on using an air horn (110-120 dB) inside the house. CDC says that dB of 85 or higher can cause permanent hearing damage, but doesn’t specify if that pertains to sustained noise or a one-time blast.
Are air horns safe to use inside a small house? Any other reason I shouldn’t use an air horn for personal safety indoors?
These horns are sold as personal safety devices, to scare off dogs and bears, and all have volumes of 110-120. Air horns are used at indoor sporting events (basketball and Olympic swimming, for ex.)
My Googling has found nothing on using an air horn (110-120 dB) inside the house. CDC says that dB of 85 or higher can cause permanent hearing damage, but doesn’t specify if that pertains to sustained noise or a one-time blast.
Are air horns safe to use inside a small house? Any other reason I shouldn’t use an air horn for personal safety indoors?
A bigger problem with handheld air horns is that people prank each other with them, which usually involves setting one off right in the ear of a victim to surprise them. And that would definitely cause short term damage and possibly long term as well.
If you were using this for protection or to alert neighbors and were pointing it away from you in an emergency situation only, I wouldn't worry that much about it.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:26 AM on July 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
If you were using this for protection or to alert neighbors and were pointing it away from you in an emergency situation only, I wouldn't worry that much about it.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:26 AM on July 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
It's 85 sustained. As long as you aren't doing nightly air horn tests, or you don't blast it directly into your own ear, you'll be fine.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 11:47 AM on July 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Sparky Buttons at 11:47 AM on July 31, 2021 [1 favorite]
I mean, there's definitely a risk to your hearing (part of the reason these are used as personal safety devices is because if someone is assaulting you an air horn blast will be actively painful) but you're presumably not using the air horn unless there's another more immediate risk (i.e. someone breaking into your house). Burglar alarms, fire alarms, and emergency sirens are also very loud. You're balancing risk. If there's another way to achieve the same result without the dangerous amount of noise, maybe go for that, but hopefully you won't have to use the air horn *at all*.
posted by mskyle at 12:28 PM on July 31, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by mskyle at 12:28 PM on July 31, 2021 [10 favorites]
Center for Disease Control: What Noises Cause Hearing Loss?
Guns are louder (130 - 160+) and sometimes one sees firearm home defense advice to stage hearing protection with one's home defense firearm. You might want to ponder the viability of staging hearing protection with your air horn.
posted by glonous keming at 12:36 PM on July 31, 2021
Shouting or barking in the ear: 110dB - Hearing loss possible in less than 2 minutes(Formatting mine)
Standing beside or near sirens: 120dB - Pain and ear injury
Guns are louder (130 - 160+) and sometimes one sees firearm home defense advice to stage hearing protection with one's home defense firearm. You might want to ponder the viability of staging hearing protection with your air horn.
posted by glonous keming at 12:36 PM on July 31, 2021
What mskye said. If you need to use your air horn inside, you have bigger, more pressing issues than if a one time semi sustained blast will damage your ears. I opt for saving my life or saving my safety over my hearing. That is from someone who has had a hearing loss since first diagnosed in 2nd grade.
posted by AugustWest at 12:57 PM on July 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by AugustWest at 12:57 PM on July 31, 2021 [6 favorites]
A quick lit search of military papers suggests that people who hear thousands of high calibre gunshots at firing ranges without hearing protection, which is around 1000 times more power (150 dB vs. 120 dB) but somewhat shorter, suffer a few percent chance of experiencing mild long term hearing loss and a 0.01 percent chance of tinitis. I hesitate to link to them because the analysis in all of them look like complete garbage. But, assuming they're not lying about the data, you'll almost certainly be fine even in the worst case.
Personally, as someone who doesn't cross the street when passing jackhammers, I wouldn't worry. Use hearing protection when you test it. (Whether or not it's an effective deterrent is a much harder question.)
posted by eotvos at 1:26 PM on July 31, 2021
Personally, as someone who doesn't cross the street when passing jackhammers, I wouldn't worry. Use hearing protection when you test it. (Whether or not it's an effective deterrent is a much harder question.)
posted by eotvos at 1:26 PM on July 31, 2021
Who will respond to a blast from an air-horn? Your neighbors will be annoyed, and any serious criminal isn’t likely to run away from a loud sound.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:48 PM on July 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 6:48 PM on July 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
The studies cited by eotvos not withstanding, the standard in the shooting community is to ear protection with every shot even for the puniest calibers.
With respect to the horn, I'm in camp "one small blast won't hurt your hearing". As to whether it's a good idea, for some intruders yes, for some no. A sneak thief who thinks the house is empty, or who counts on you being asleep, will probably run. A violent home invader won't, and the horn may signal your location and lead him to attack you.
Some sort of automatic burglar alarm might be a better choice.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:13 AM on August 1, 2021
With respect to the horn, I'm in camp "one small blast won't hurt your hearing". As to whether it's a good idea, for some intruders yes, for some no. A sneak thief who thinks the house is empty, or who counts on you being asleep, will probably run. A violent home invader won't, and the horn may signal your location and lead him to attack you.
Some sort of automatic burglar alarm might be a better choice.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:13 AM on August 1, 2021
A can of pepper spray might be a handy add-on.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:44 AM on August 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:44 AM on August 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Using pepper spray inside sounds like a really bad idea.
Using an air horn in emergencies is unlikely to make a difference in your hearing, but agreed that unless you talk to your neighbors it might not work as intended. Calling 911 and setting off a smoke alarm might be a better bet to draw attention (if you have sprinklers, the smoke alarm becomes a worse idea).
posted by momus_window at 7:47 PM on August 1, 2021
Using an air horn in emergencies is unlikely to make a difference in your hearing, but agreed that unless you talk to your neighbors it might not work as intended. Calling 911 and setting off a smoke alarm might be a better bet to draw attention (if you have sprinklers, the smoke alarm becomes a worse idea).
posted by momus_window at 7:47 PM on August 1, 2021
FYI:
posted by flug at 2:23 PM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
- Noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss (NIHL) is a preventive disease, yet the effective treatment modality has not been established. . . . It is acknowledged that approximately 1.7% of the world population has NIHL. The two most common causes are (1) factory noise and (2) acoustic trauma by gunfire noise. Acoustic trauma by gunfire noise, in the case of rifles, typically causes unilateral hearing loss or asymmetric hearing loss in which hearing loss of the left ear is severe in right-handers by the head-shadow effect.
- Hearing sensitivity for an experimental group of 278 industrial workers who engaged in recreational shooting was compared with that of an age-matched control group of 278 nonshooting industrial workers to examine the effect of gunfire exposure on auditory thresholds. . . . Results revealed that hearing sensitivity for frequencies 3.0, 4.0, and 6.0 kHz for both ears in the experimental group was an average of approximately 5 to 10 dB poorer than that of the control subjects. . . . Older shooters had more hearing loss and greater threshold asymmetry than younger shooters . . .
- I am an avid sportsman myself, and after seeing patients in the Ear, Nose & Throat Department for the past 17 years, I am amazed by how many people don’t wear hearing protection when they shoot guns. I see patients every week with hearing loss, and a large number of those patients have a history of noise exposure without the use of hearing protection. Studies show that people who use guns are more likely to develop permanent hearing loss than those who don’t. Shooting without hearing protection practically guarantees you will suffer at least some degree of hearing loss in your lifetime. Aging and heredity also contribute to hearing loss, but exposure to noise, especially noise from guns, is the one preventable variable that you can control to reduce your risk hearing loss.
- People who use firearms are more likely to develop hearing loss than those who do not. Firearm users tend to have high-frequency permanent hearing loss, which means that they may have trouble hearing speech sounds like "s," "th," or "v" and other high-pitched sounds. The left ear (in right-handed shooters) often suffers more damage than the right ear because it is closer to, and directly in line with, the muzzle of the firearm.
posted by flug at 2:23 PM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
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https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/toolkit/listen_up_air_horns.html
posted by kschang at 11:00 AM on July 31, 2021 [3 favorites]