[Evaluation of impulse noise]

The assessment of the risk of hearing loss due to impulse-weighted sound levels in working places leads to wrong results at often intermittent noise exposures, since the energy-equivalent continuous noise level does not consider the recovering of hearing due to noise pauses. In these cases the LAeq without impulse addition can lead to a correct assessment, as Pfeiffer and Maue demonstrated for the construction professions, but it cannot be excluded that LAeq on the one side can lead to underestimation of the risk of hearing loss at continuous exposure to impulse noise, on the other side even to overestimation in cases of height portion of pauses.