Hearing Loss: How do I know whether am exposed to dangerous noise levels?

April 25th, 2007 | Category: WoodWorking

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Most society do not carry around with them a dBA monitor to sample the ambient noise. So how, can you tell whether noise is damaging to your hearing? What is considered to be a safe decibel level of noise? Is there graphical way to view noise?

There are a couple of ways to determine whether the noise is damagingly loud.

After you are finished with the capability tool and you turn it off your ears are ringing for a while or sounds seem flat or dull.
When talking to a person that is arm’s length away you have to raise your voice considerably, the ambient noise is damaging to your hearing.

According to the CDC that sounds below 85 dBA is not damaging when exposed to it less than eight hours. Personally I think that is too loud and will cause towering term hearing loss.

The CDC in conjunction with National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have put together an interesting graphic that depicts various dBA levels in proportion to each other.

Here is a list of the decibels (dBA) produced from various common woodworking capability tools.

Miter saw	102
Hand Drill (corded)	97
Chop Saw	106
Hammer Drill	114
Chain saw	109
Circular Saw	100
Belt Sander	94
Circular sander	90
Router	95
Planer	94
Table saw	92
Mortising tool	90