Safe lifetime occupational noise exposure - 1 LONE

Noise exposure of workers in industry should be expressed in PASQUES ((Pascals squared seconds) to facilitate the easy calculation of the lifetime occupational noise (LONE) exposure. To calculate the safe sound exposure, it is necessary to identify the sound level that does not cause hearing loss above the acceptable 25 dB of hearing loss used as the fence. The sound exposures in PASQUES for a working lifetime of 80,000 hours are shown for sound exposures of 75 and 80 dB. Thus, a safe sound exposure for all workers would be something between 3.6 and 11.5 million PASQUES. To protect all people from 5 dB of hearing loss, the 75 dB alternative would be the proper scientific decision. The authors consider the adoption of 11.5 million PASQUES as a safe noise exposure for a worker's lifetime, a lifetime occupational noise exposure, or 1 LONE. At this exposure level, there would be an excess risk of hearing loss of about 3%; wearing hearing protection would thus protect all exposed workers from hearing loss.