So How Accurate Are These Smartphone Sound Measurement Apps? | Blogs | CDC

We appreciate your comment and sincere request. Please note that NIOSH does not recommend nor endorse a particular commercial product and also note that this was a pilot study so there may be other apps out there that may be as accurate as the ones we tested. The results of our study showed that the SPLnFFT app from Fabien Lefebvre and SoundMeter app from Faber Acoustical had the best accuracy, followed by Noise Hunter and NoiSee. All of these apps are available through the iTunes app store. Take a look at the description and screen layout of each and choose an app that you feel most comfortable using. Any of these apps should be adequate to do the job (The apps pricing range from $0.99 for NoiSee to $19.99/$99.99 for SoundMeter).

The most important thing is to get 3-5 readouts over different periods of times so you can get a better understanding of the noise environment at your club and find out what the overall average noise levels. To make sense of the noise level readouts you get from a particular app, note that the NIOSH recommended exposure over an 8-hour workday is 85 decibels, A-weighted (dBA), and for every 3-dB increase in that level, you cut exposure time in half, so if your reading is 88 dBA, , you should only be exposed to that level of noise for up to 4 hours (per day), at 91 dBA, exposure time is cut to 2 hours, and so on. See Table 1-1 in this document http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-126/pdfs/98-126.pdf and try to match the noise level readout to the recommended exposure duration. Remember, these apps are only meant to give you a rough idea about your environment, they do not replace the need for a professional noise assessment. But if your readouts exceed our recommended limit of 85 dBA on a consistent basis, then it might be worthwhile to share that information with the club management and see if they can address it. There are a variety of solutions available to an employer, from reducing and controlling the noise levels, to administrative controls such as limiting time spent in the area with the excessive noise and taking breaks, or if those are not possible, offering hearing protection. There are many different kinds of hearing protectors available these days, such as the “musicians’ earplugs” that attenuate noise uniformly across all frequencies without distorting speech and music. Based on your description of your job, the musicians’ type of protectors would seem to be ideal for your situation.