Re: Child's scream (Rebecca Mercuri )

Subject: Re: Child's scream
From:    Rebecca Mercuri  <mercuri(at)GRADIENT.CIS.UPENN.EDU>
Date:    Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:39:32 -0500

Actually, a colleague who works for OSHA measured his infant's
scream some years ago and noted that it was well within the range
of hearing damage (if sustained). I don't recall the actual numbers
but 140 dB would certainly be at that range.

I remember thinking at the time that perhaps the reason parents
respond to the infant (or child) screaming so quickly is more to
spare themselves hearing damage than to tend to the needs of the
fussy kid. It certainly is a good biological mechanism (for the kid)!

Rebecca Mercuri
mercuri(at)acm.org