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Recommended standards for continuous exposure to various sound pressure levels

This has been a topic of conversation here before, so I thought I would share a recent posting from a board for orchestral musicians who are members of the ICSOM orchestras (International Congress of Symphony and Opera Orchestra Members - basically the major full-time professional orchestras in the US and abroad).

The topic was How Long Can A Person Endure Certain Noise Levels Before Hearing Impairment Occurs?

These are the accepted standards for recommended permissible exposure duration for continuous time weighted average noise, according to NIOSH and CDC. For every 3dB SPL over 85dB, the permissible exposure time is cut in half, before hearing loss can occur. Bear in mind this is continuous average exposure, and may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.

82dB - 16 hours
85dB - 8 hours
88 dB - 4 hours
91dB - 2 hours
94dB - 1 hour
97dB - 30 minutes
100dB - 15 minutes
103dB - 7.5 minutes
106dB - less than 4 minutes
109dB - less than 2 minutes
112dB - less than 1 minute
115dB - under 30 seconds

This is a very big topic of discussion among orchestral musicians worldwide at the moment. It has been proven that the average orchestral musician will lose at least 20% of their hearing over the course of their career. I thought audiophiles would find this interesting, especially those of you who listen very loudly for long periods of time.


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Topic - Recommended standards for continuous exposure to various sound pressure levels - learsfool 20:50:20 08/10/12 (25)

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