ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the reader is introduced to:
the anatomy of the ear;
the response of the ear to sound;
relationships between noise exposure and hearing loss;
loudness measures;
masking of some sound by other sound;
various measures used to quantify occupational and environmental noise;
various weighting networks for single number descriptions of the amplitude of complex sounds;
hearing loss associated with age and exposure to noise;
hearing damage risk criteria, requirements for speech recognition and alternative interpretations of existing data;
hearing damage risk criteria and trading rules;
speech interference criteria for broadband noise and intense tones;
psychological effects of noise as a cause of stress and effects on work efficiency;
Noise Rating (NR), Noise Criteria (NC), Room Criteria (RC), Balanced Noise Criteria (NCB) and Room Noise Criteria (RNC) for ambient level specification; and
environmental noise criteria.
