Noisy equipment and processes are found throughout military operations, exposing service members to risks of hearing damage due to hazardous noise levels. This article provides an overview of the military noise environment for the non-expert and provides a general characterization of the noise by source type and operational category. The focus of the article is primarily related to the Army, but the same, or similar, equipment is used by the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. Damage risk criteria used by the Army Public Health Command are discussed. In addition, the important role of hearing protection to mitigate the hazards of noise exposure is provided.

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This procedure describes a field method for determining operator noise exposures that cannot be assessed from single sound level meter readings. Noise exposures that should be evaluated by this method are those characterized by time-varying operator position sound levels--sound levels that change by three decibels or more while the meter is being read. The method is based on statistical concepts and requires multiple readings for a sample period whose length is prescribed by the desired precision of the results. This new procedure compares well with the theoretical accuracy of the best dosimeters. The actual performance of the new method has been shown to be better than the actual performance of the dosimeters.