Firecracker While Inside but Window Open — Will I Be OK?

[JanTD]

Hi,

I need some advice on the following:

Some damn kids randomly used a single firecracker on my street just about 10 feet from the house I live in, so more or less in front of it :-(. I was inside my flat on the second floor of said house sitting in my living room, a room which has a windows towards the balcony that faces the street and the balcony door/windows towards that street was entirely open (the balcony is towards the street where it happened).

It was one bang.

This is NOT my house but the photo comes pretty close:

I have a slight increase in T and the one ear that didnt face the balcony door (why?) feels weird and now I worry a lot mostly because I left the balcony door open.

Can someone knowledgable on decibels tell me what roughly I was exposed to and whether or not there is likelihood of damage? I am petrified.

I would have to calculate with 140 db as the basis? I need some facts so that I can think more or less rationally.

I know there are several threads but they all deal with either the person being outside as well or being inside with all windows closed and muffs/plugs on on special dates like New year's etc.

Thank you!

 

[PortalNaut]

140db sounds like a good guess, as it would be similar to an average gunshot.

I did a google search for the following: noise calculations through an open window

Found a couple of these for your perusal for the physics.
https://acoustics.asn.au/conference_proceedings/AAS2011/papers/p37.pdf
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=archengdiss

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.538.135&rep=rep1&type=pdf
part II:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.564.7574&rep=rep1&type=pdf

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/154792308.pdf

The first one shows some 30-40 of db reduction and the last one 18-42. You can this varies by frequency and quite a few other factors.

Hope you feel better!

 

[JanTD]

The links are great. Thank you.

So, worst case scenario I was exposed to 110db for 1 second. Damage is out of the question for 99% then?

Struggling with a spike unfortunately but I worry a lot.

 

[PortalNaut]

Seems like the exposure was indeed brief and baffled to some degree.

And....yet, we have to trust out bodies to some degree (a lot actually). You have increased T after an event, and whether it is a spike or not you will have to determine. I remember as a kid having a firecracker explode about 3 feet from my face. I was stunned and perhaps my hearing briefly went away, but everything went back to normal. As kids we used to shoot 22s without hearing protection. Had normal hearing. So outside a window 10 feet away, could be an issue if we/you are older and if ears are damaged a bit anyway. I hate to be pushing a remedy per se, but if I was concerned, I would take Flonase for 2 weeks and see if it helps. It is a steroid.