Effects on hearing caused by personal cassette players, concerts, and discotheques and conclusions for hearing conservation in Switzerland

Since 1996, Switzerland has had a regulation implying A.-weighted sound lev el limits of 100 and 93 dB, respectively, for music at concerts and in disc otheques, But for all the experts involved in the development of this regul ation, it was clear from the beginning that additional measures against hea ring loss caused by music would be necessary, e.g., limitation of the sound levels produced by personal cassette players (PCPs). Therefore, two studie s were started which addressed the following factors: 1) extent of hearing loss among young people in Switzerland; 2) correlation between hearing loss and music listening habits; 3) relative importance of different sources fo r the hazard to hearing; 4) percentage of PCP users exposed above accepted damage risk criteria; and 5) knowledge of young people regarding sound expo sure and hearing. (C) 1999 Institute of Noise Control Engineering, [S0736-2 501(99)00305-7].