The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has an interactive infographic on decibel levels. When using Bluetooth-enabled earbuds, limit the volume using the phone’s settings.įor venues and events where amplified music is being played, the World Health Organization issued recommendations to monitor the sound levels, optimize acoustics to ensure safe listening, and provide ear protection as well as access to quiet zones so attendees can rest their ears. You must first antilog each number, add or subtract and then log them again in the following way: For example, adding three levels 94.0 + 96.0 + 98. This helps protect our hearing and allows us to listen to our favorite music for longer. Sound levels are generally expressed in decibels, which are logarithmic and so cannot be manipulated without being converted back to a linear scale. To put this in perspective, a normal conversation is typically around 60 dB, while a jet engine at takeoff is around 140 dB. Headphones and earbuds can reach as loud as 100 dB or more, so a safe level is 50 to 60 percent of the maximum volume. Train horns are some of the loudest horns in use today, with decibel levels that can reach up to 175 dB or more. We recommend following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines averaging no more than 70 dB. Information is presented in the form of a table, a graph with several equal loudness curves and a figure representing the sone scale.
![the decibel scale the decibel scale](https://st3.depositphotos.com/6892184/16675/v/1600/depositphotos_166751870-stock-illustration-the-decibel-scale.jpg)
This workplace limit is also not safe for children, whose auditory system is still developing, and their ears have to last a lifetime. The DeciBels, Phons, and Sones describes the relationship between sound intensity and the deciBel level, between the perceived loudness of a sound and its frequency and deciBel level, and the sone scale of loudness. The issue is that it’s not just the workplace that we experience loud sounds-it’s also during our commute or while out to dinner or the movies-as well as our use of personal listening devices. If we need to shout at a friend who is an arm’s length away, or we can hear music coming out of another person’s headphones, the volume is at least 85 dB, which is the maximum “safe level” for workplace noise exposure over the course of an eight-hour day.