There is a growing number of people exposed to noise outside their working environments, namely in recreational activities. A typical example of those activities is the use of fireguns with recreational or practice purposes. This use has becomes very popular amongst police agents and other people, namely those with sport purposes. Previous studies have shown that, unlike occupational environments, shooting sites management rarely considers any solutions beyond the use of HPDs (Hearing Protection Devices). Besides, noise exposure in these sites has specific characteristics, such as the short duration and the high impulsive characteristics of noise. Therefore, people protection from noise exposure is dependent on the HPD selection. This selection is frequently made considering the attenuation data of the devices. However, the attenuation data of HPD is based on laboratory methods and do not includes data about the devices' performance when exposed to impulsive noise. The main aim of this study is to analyse the HPD's (both passive and active) performance in real use conditions, namely when in high impulsive noise environments. For this purpose a technique to assess HPD's real efficiency, similar to MIRE (Microphone In Real Ear), was applied. From the obtained results, it was possible to verify that high impulsive noise exposure is very significant amongst shooting sites users, and that the HPDs most commonly used are, in the majority of the cases, suitable for users protection, namely in what concerns the exposure to high impulsive noise.
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