title: Influence of a wearer's voice on noise dosimeter measurements.
abstract: In recent years, interest in personal noise exposure has expanded beyond a workplace safety measure to become an effective means of investigating physiological effects of the acoustic environment on an individual. This work investigates the effects of the wearer's voice as a possible dominant sound source on body-mounted noise dosimeters and develops methods to improve the application of dosimeter measurements in medium-level noise environments. Subjects experienced a controlled set of acoustic conditions while wearing a dosimeter. In each condition, sound pressure levels were recorded with and without the subject speaking controlled phrases. Three experimental variables were considered-room type, noise type, and noise level. All three variables had a statistically significant effect upon the contribution of speech to a dosimeter measurement; for example, noise level was shown to cause a change in speech contribution by as much as 5.5 dB between sequential levels. Based upon the analysis, a method of predicting the decibel contribution of a wearer's voice was developed. The results of this study can be used to estimate the effect of a wearer's voice on dosimeter measurements in medium-level noise environments.
authors.affiliation: Chalmers Room Acoustic Group, Department of Applied Acoustics, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden. srryherd@arpeggioacoustics.com
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ryherd
authors.forename: Mendel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kleiner
authors.forename: Kerstin Persson
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Waye
authors.forename: Erica E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Ryherd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001299:Audiometry / Q000379:methods; D004779:Environment Design; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult