A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF NOISE EXPOSURE AND RISK OF HEARING IMPAIRMENT

摘要

A comprehensive strategy is presented for the evaluation of the daily noise exposure level [L_(EX,d) in dB(A)] and the assessment of the risk of hearing impairment. The risk is defined as the probability for a worker with a given exposure history to noise to develop a hearing deficit above a given threshold. It is shown that for a given accuracy to be obtained on the risk prediction, the precision required on the L_(EX,d) is low at levels around 90 dB(A) and increases at higher levels. The strategy uses the concepts of homogeneous group of exposure (HGE) and stationarity interval (S.I.), defined as the period over which the exposure distribution is the same for the members of the HGE.