You may or may not have read Gala’s post on the ila Dusk personal alarm a while back – I left a comment on the post and they (they being ila Dusk!) subsequently contacted me and asked if I’d like to do a review of their alarm. Of course, I said yes! Read on to hear (err, see) my thoughts…
Their website:
The ila Dusk website is well designed and easy to navigate. Aside from the personal alarm, which was the product I received, they’ve got several other clever items: a dog leash with a built in flash light and personal alarm, a portable electronic safe, an alarm for travellers with a compass, bottle opener, and flashlight all built in, and a personal alarm key ring, among others. All of the items are discreet and probably wouldn’t be recognized as an alarm.
Appearance:
It is very cute, as you can see. It wouldn’t be out of place as a charm on a purse, at all. The alarm measure about an inch and a half wide, about three inches long, and juuust under a half an inch thick.
How it works:
Pulling the chain triggers a high pitched, loud (130 decibels) screaming noise. According to the manual pamphlet: “The alarm has been designed for ONE continuous activation of eight minutes…Once the alarm has been activated it will last for between 8-10 minutes.” Putting the pin back in stops the noise.
Because I a. am a super curious individual who can give cats a run for their money in that department and b. wouldn’t feel right giving a review without testing something out, I took the alarm out to the most secluded spot of parking lot I could find and gave it a try.
The Marks and Spencer website says that it’s “nearly equivalent to a jet plane and louder than a jackhammer or chainsaw” – and honestly, that seems like a bit of an exaggeration to me. I might not have got the full effect since I only let the noise go for maybe 10-15 seconds before putting the pin back in, but it was certainly not as loud as a chainsaw. I did try it again a little later indoors and it seemed much louder, ear-ringingly loud, but I’m not sure if that was because I was indoors or because it gets louder the longer the pin is pulled out.
Final thoughts:
Do I think it would be useful? Yeah, I do. I probably wouldn’t rely on it as my only method of personal safety, but I’m kind of paranoid. I would think the best way to use it would be to throw the alarm at your attacker (so it would keep making the noise in close proximity to them) and then run away or use their distraction to pepper spray them and then run.
From the looks of the company’s website, they are definitely trying to help women be and feel safer. I read through their tips for personal safety and I liked the way it was written, no victim blaming crap or “it’s your responsibility to blah blah blah” (um, no, it’s others’ responsibility to not f’king attack or rape people, actually!). And since women are taught from a pretty young age to tend towards nonviolence, I think a nonviolent personal safety product is probably more likely to be used.
I do feel the need to launch into my personal safety speech. That statistic about how whatever percentage of pepper spray/knives/etc. end up getting used against the person who has them? That’s because people have a tendency to hold the weapon at arm’s length and threaten to use it. DON’T DO THAT. If you feel threatened, freaking use it. Especially with something like pepper spray, that will not kill anyone! You should never be afraid to defend yourself. And if you take a women’s self defense class, make sure it’s one that can be taken seriously, some of them are total jokes.
The ila Dusk will be available to purchase in the USA at this website, starting on April 27. It’s already available to purchase from several UK retailers, you can see them at the ila security website.
