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Adults, as well as children, experience hearing loss if the sound intensity is loud enough. According to the NIH, data from 2005-2006 estimated that 17% of teenagers had noise-induced hearing loss.
There is no agreement on the acceptable risk of noise-induced hearing loss in children; and adult damage-risk criteria may not be suitable for establishing safe listening levels for children due to differences in physiology and the more serious developmental impact of hearing loss early in life.
Sound levels as low as 40 dB(A) can generate noise complaints [43] and the lower threshold for noise producing sleep disturbance is 45 dB(A) or lower. [ 44 ] Other factors that affect the annoyance level of sound include beliefs about noise prevention and the importance of the noise source, and annoyance at the cause (i.e., non-noise related ...
In the European Union, directive 2003/10/EC mandates that employers shall provide hearing protection at noise levels exceeding 80 dB(A), and that hearing protection is mandatory for noise levels exceeding 85 dB(A). [60] Both values are based on 8 hours per day, with a 3 dB exchange rate.
A basic measure of hearing is afforded by an audiogram, a graph of the absolute threshold of hearing (minimum discernible sound level) at various frequencies throughout an organism's nominal hearing range. [4] Behavioural hearing tests or physiological tests can be used to find the hearing thresholds of humans and other animals.
In the descending runs, the subject may continue to reduce the level of the sound as if the sound was still audible, even though the stimulus is already well below the actual hearing threshold. In contrast, in the ascending runs, the subject may have persistence of the absence of the stimulus until the hearing threshold is passed by certain amount.
By listening to broadband noise at soft levels for a disciplined period of time each day, some patients can rebuild (i.e., re-establish) their tolerances to sound. [ 2 ] [ 47 ] [ 48 ] [ 49 ] More research is needed on the efficacy of sound therapy techniques when hyperacusis is the primary complaint, rather than a secondary symptom, indicating ...
Care must be taken when writing an objective noise provision to make sure that the sound levels are physically realizable. For example, requiring the maximum sound level of an automobile to be 40 dB(A) or the maximum sound level in a residential zone to be 30 dB(A) opens the provision to an enforceability challenge.