Annalisa Wray has held the current world record since 1994. She screamed the word "quiet" at a level of 121.7 dBA during the Citybus Challenge in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That is nearly as loud as a jet engine! Jill Drake, a classroom aide, owns the scream championship with an ear-piercing 129 dBA. The average human voice ranges from about 100 to 150 dBA. Anything louder than that is considered shouting instead of speaking. Shouting can cause damage to your ears if it is repeated often enough. The highest recorded human voice was 270 dBA, set by Harold Hughes during his death scream as he lay dying from tuberculosis. The lowest recorded human voice was 3 dBA, set by Albert Einstein when he was aged 7. People have different ways of expressing pain. Screaming is one way that people show anger or fear. When you shout, you use your vocal cords to make sound waves so that others will know there is danger or that you are angry with them. Shouting can be dangerous if you abuse it. It can cause hearing loss if done repeatedly. Also, the person who is shouting may be ignored if they are not saying anything important. Young children's voices are soft compared to adults' voices. By age 5, most children's voices have reached their peak volume.