<HTML>In a message dated 7/18/02 6:36:52 AM Central Daylight Time, cedel@supernet.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Now something I've been thinking about lately.  My wife and I have a small room air conditioner in the bedroom and another in the large main room area.  I regard room air conditioners as quite noisy and I dislike the noise, but it's usually preferable to the heat!  Can that constant whoosh be damaging to one hearing? Regards, Clyde Hollinger, RPT </BLOCKQUOTE> Clyde From what I have been led to understand, it is not the how long the sound goes on, but at what decibel level it is, that hurts the ears. You might want get a decibel reader somewhere and see how loud that AC is. But even if it isn't loud enough to cause hearing damage, it might have other effects. There have been cases where a constant noise made people sick, or at most, irritable. Wim </HTML>