Reducing audible sound for fire alarm

[beach]

I have a large hospital complex that has a separate building used for child daycare, the hospital wants to reduce or eliminate the audible notification in the day care and use the existing visible signaling per 2010 NFPA 72 Section 18.4.3.2 "Where approved by the authority having jurisdiction or other governing codes or standards, the requirements for audible signaling shall be permitted to be reduced or eliminated when visible signaling is provided in accordance with Section 18.5."

Assuming the daycare visible signaling is in accordance with Section 18.5, does anyone see any problem in allowing the audible reduction or elimination?

The reasoning, according to the hospital, is that the audibles are scaring the children and causing nightmares according to the parents, and they are also concerned about long term affects to their hearing.

Due to ongoing construction, etc. the false alarm rate is approx. 20 times per month.... this is another problem we are dealing with.

I'm leaning towards allowing the audibles in the childrens rooms (approx. 8 rooms) to be reduced or eliminated, and using only visibles per the above reference, and keep the ones in the main office. Naturally, there is a "teacher" in every class when the children are present.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated!

 

[Paul Sweet]

A chime at a reduced volume should be sufficient to get the staff's attention without scaring the children.

Horns are very annoying, but saying they might have long term affects to the children's hearing is going a little far. They're nothing compared to the "music"(??) the kids will be listening to in a few years.

 

[cda]

Away from the book

But only have to be 15 above db so turn them down till you hit the db level

Also why having so many false alarms, that should be the issue

Bypass or do something else!!!!