What is the risk shooting in an indoor facility?
A. If the indoor facility is not acoustically treated properly, the risk is hearing loss, even with ear protection. Impulse noise (gunfire) at 140dB may cause significant hearing loss with one exposure. With peak gunfire exceeding 165dB, and wearing the best hearing protection of 25dB attenuation, the shooter is still exposed to levels above 140dB, very dangerous levels. In an acoustically untreated facility, noise levels, due to reflection, build up exposing shooters to a higher cumulative noise level. Hearing loss caused by exposure to high noise levels may be permanent and irreversible. According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, there is no treatment, no medicine, and no surgery, not even a hearing aid that completely restores hearing once it is damaged by noise. When sound levels are too high, they begin to kill nerve endings in the inner ear. As the exposure time to high sound levels increases more and more nerve endings are destroyed resulting in greater hearing loss. N
