Standard Practice for Measurement of Equipment-Generated Continuous Noise for Assessment of Health Hazards

This standard defines measurement procedures for estimating the risk of noise-induced hearing loss among users of noise producing equipment. It is applicable to ground vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, and mobile, transportable, and stationary equipment. The primary approach is to separately measure the sound level at operator ear locations for each normal operating condition. These levels can be combined with operational use scenarios and exposure criteria to define noise exposure severity. The data can also be used to define hearing protection requirements or administrative controls to preclude hearing hazard.

The practice has the following limitations:

The practice uses field portable measurement equipment.

The practice produces data which may be compared with applicable criteria or limits if the limits are in terms of the quantities measured in this standard or which can be calculated from the measured data.