The reliability of personal noise dosimeters under steady-state and variable noise exposure

Three groups of 15 industrial workers were identified according to their pattern of exposure to noise: (a) steady-state, (b) periodically fluctuating and (c) randomly variable. A personal dosimeter was worn by each worker for three consecutive days. The long term exposure was also assessed by means of sound level meter sampling procedure. The standard error of measurement of the dosimetry was ±1.10, ±1.56 and ±2.86 dB for the three types of exposures respectively. Dosimetric and SLM data achieved the same result within 0.5 dB for the first 2 groups. An average difference of 3.4 dB was obtained with the third group