HEARING HAZARD FROM IMPULSE NOISE - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF 2 CLASSICAL CRITERIA FOR WEAPON NOISES (PFANDER CRITERION AND SMOORENBURG CRITERION) AND THE L(AEQ8) METHOD

Permissible exposure conditions to various weapon noises have been com pared according to: (i) the Pfander criterion (Germany), (ii) the Smoo renburg criterion (the Netherlands) and, (iii) the DTAT recommendation (France) which is based on A-weighted L(eq8) measurements. The L(Aeq8 ) method allows the assessment of the hearing hazard for all weapon no ises according to the well-recognized procedure used for occupational exposure (ISO R-1999). With a 85 dB limit this method does not lead to overprotection of the soldiers, as it is the case for the criteria of Pfander and Smoorenburg with respect to large-calibre weapon noises a nd it allows for the evaluation of the actual hearing protection affor ded by earplugs or earmuffs from classical Insertion-Loss data obtaine d by Real-Ear-At-Threshold or Acoustical-Test-Fixture measurements. Mo reover, the L(Aeq8) method is able to cope with exposure conditions wh ich are difficult to evaluate on the basis of the former criteria (wea pon noises in enclosures, combined exposures for example).