22 million workers go to work each day in damaging noise. Noise-induced hearing loss remains a problem in US industry and in the US military despite our best preventative efforts. A significant roadblock in preventing hearing loss is the lack of an accurate quantification of personal exposure. Potential risk is currently determined by measuring cumulative noise exposure using personal noise dosimeters. These are typically worn on-the-shoulder as a surrogate position for center-of-head. Unfortunately, these on-the-shoulder measurements are inherently inaccurate. They fail to compensate for the resonance of the ear canal, therefore the measurements can be in error by 10+ dB. These measurements also fail to account for off-the-job exposures. Finally, on-the-body measurements can suffer from head- and body-shadow effects and environmental factors. The solution to these issues is a deep-fitting, in-ear noise dosimeter that can be worn for extended periods. Nittany Acoustics proposes to build a disposable, low-cost, deep-fitting, in-the-ear noise dosimeter. The dosimeter will have an extended dynamic range for high level impulse noise such as gunfire. The noise dosimeter will meet and exceed all ANSI S1.25-1991 (R2017) specifications. This tiny instrument will advance the state-of-the-art in personal noise measurement. Noise, hearing loss, Dosimeter, NOISE EXPOSURE
