Abstract

Impact noises are often found in industrial environments, and they are predominant in mining, construction, factories, workshops, and shipyards. Impulse noises are more likely to cause noise-induced hearing loss than continuous noise of equal energy. Many countries have defined impulse noise exposure limits and criteria in occupational settings. They are based on the sound level measurements made using standard sound pressure level meters and dosemeters. However, it is not appropriate to use these instruments when dealing with such high peak levels and short duration times because of their metrological limitations. Studies on hearing damage produced by firearms, mainly on police and military personnel, have led to damage risk criteria in some standards. Although industrial noises can reach similar peak sound pressure levels, not many results have been published. In this work, several common sources of industrial impact noise were measured in-situ at the worker locations, using a specialized system equipped with high-dynamic-range microphones and a very high data acquisition rate. The signals were post-processed to obtain some metrics used for impulse noise exposure assessment. It is shown that many standard industrial processes reported a very high risk of impulsive noise to human hearing.