EU Action levels for noise protection at work
| |
First Action level (minimum) provide protection |
Second Action level mandatory protection |
Maximum Exposure limit value |
| 8 hours |
80 dB(A) |
85 dB(A) |
87 dB(A) |
| 4 hours |
83 dB(A) |
88 dB(A) |
90 dB(A) |
| 2 hours |
86 dB(A) |
91 dB(A) |
93 dB(A) |
| 1 hours |
89 dB(A) |
94 dB(A) |
96 dB(A) |
| 30 minutes |
92 dB(A) |
97 dB(A) |
99 dB(A) |
| 15 minutes |
95 dB(A) |
100 dB(A) |
102 dB(A) |
| 1 minute |
107 dB(A) |
111 dB(A) |
113 dB(A) |
Source: Adapted from Table 3, SCENIHR,
Potential health risks of exposure to noise from personal music players and mobile phones including a music playing function (2008),
Sections 3.3.5., Page 21
Related publication:
Other Figures & Tables on this publication:
Figure 1*: Normal equal-loudness-level contours for pure tones under free-field
listening conditions
Figure 2: The prevalence of hearing impairment
Figure 3: Estimated units sales in EU of all portable audio devices and MP3 devices over the period 2004–2007,
Figure 4: The number of unit sales for all portable audio devices for the ten countries and for the EU,
Figure 5: Number of unit sales (in thousands) for CD and MP3 devices in ten European countries* between 2001 and 2007
Figure 6: Cumulative numbers of MP3 players and all portable audio equipment in the EU
Figure 7: Percentage of each portable audio device sold in 2004-2007
Figure 8: Percentage of each portable audio device sold in 2007 and the estimated number of units sold in EU
Table 1: Examples of sound pressure levels in relation to hearing threshold and pain threshold (in dB SPL)The range of human ear’s audible sounds goes from 0 dB SPL (hearing threshold) to 120-140 dB SPL (pain threshold)
Table 2: Audiometric hearing thresholds of normal ears: conversion of dB SPL
into dB HL (Extracted from ISO, 2003)
Pure-tone audiometric thresholds are expressed in dB HL (hearing level). The differences between dB HL and dB SPL, arise from isophonic curves.
Table 3: The examples of equivalent time-intensity levels referred to the
action levels
according to the Directive 2003/10/EC
Table 4: World Health Organisation Grades of Hearing Impairement (WHO, 2008)
Low and high-pitched sounds appear less loud to the human ear
EU Action levels for noise protection at work
Table 5: Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) predicted from ISO 1999 as a function of noise exposure level for 45 years (adapted from Lutman et al. 2008) Extent of
hearing loss to be expected from a working lifetime of 45 years at daily
continuous noise levels of 80, 85, 90 and 95 dB(A).
Table 6 : Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) predicted from ISO 1999 as a function of noise exposure level for 3 years (adapted from Lutman et al. 2008) Extent of hearing
loss to be expected from a shorter exposure duration of 3 years at daily
continuous noise levels of 80, 85, 90 and 95 dB(A).
