Proposal of the Rule for Rating Levels of Industrial Impulsive Noise Regarding the Risk of Hearing Damage

Since the release of the core standards for determining occupational noise exposure, ISO 1999:2013 and ISO 9612:2009, adjustments for noise types that were previously thought to have additional damaging effects of noise uneven in the time and frequency domain have been left out when rating noise levels in the workplace. Recent literature as well as models of the effect of noise on hearing indicate a particularly damaging effect of impulsive noise. At the same time, the regulation requires consideration of the type of noise, including any exposure to impulsive noise. This paper proposes a rule for rating that would reduce the risk of hearing damage arising from disregarding the impulsive nature of noise.