Will pool alarm decibels damage a babies hearing??

[Jhc]

One of our gite customers asked a good question today - 'if the pool alarm goes off by accident, will it damage my 4 month old babies hearing if I am standing near it holding her?'  Well, we do not know the answer and told her so.  Frankly, it's so loud that it would not surprise me at all to find that it could do so but we had never thought about it before.  As it happens, we've got 2 alarms,  infra red beams for the main pool and an aquasensor for the toddler pool - I suppose that in a freak situation they could both accidentally go off together although it has never happened so far.  Surely AFNOR will have thought of this when testing these for use near small children.  Anyone else know the answer???

[Poolguy]

Alarms have a siren which reaches 100db in some instances which is quite difficult to be close to. I can imagine that a babies hearing would be much more affected but to do permanent damage I would expect that the Baby would need prolonged or repeated exposure to the noise. The only exception to this is if for some reason the baby had its ear touching or within reach of the alarm in which case anyone might suffer some ill effects I suspect.

Alarms are designed to be heard clearly from inside a house up to 20 meters away, to achieve that they need to be that loud. If there is any aprehension about ill effects on children from them going off then I sugest that another form of security is used instead of the alarm, as I have said many times before, they are inneffective as a sole security device In my opinion.

 

Andrew

[Renaud]

We hated the look of the approved pool fences, so we installed an infra red system (suggested by Andrew) and the alarm is not that loud, I doubt if it would do more than annoy a baby.

As a back-up, we have a non-approved fence with lockable gates, some way back from the pool. This fence is much cheaper but pretty much todler proof and it keeps the local dogs, ducks and sheep out. We agree with Andrew that an alarmed pool needs a second line of defence.

Only trouble is that the swifts flying low to nab the flying insects over the surface of the pool can fly between the infra red beams and set the alarm off.

[Tresco]

JHc, it's unlikely anyone hear can give you a definitive answer.

However, if you think about the level of noise babies are routinely exposed to then occasional brief exposure to an alarm may the least of your clients worries. For example, turning the TV/Radio up so you (they) can hear it over the noise of a hoover, or wheeeling your (their) child along the pavement of a busy road, in a buggy.

It is a concern though, because 'noise induced hearing loss' can't be fixed. That's the term you need to 'google', and you may find some answers in the medical literature that comes up, to give to clients who ask this question in the future.