Military and industrial performance: the critical role of noise controls

Noise control is a well understood and important engineering skill. The science has been developed to address operational needs of being quiet on the one hand, and avoiding hearing loss on the other, both in industry and military operations. Noise control is also the first priority step in systems safety risk mitigation for noise hazards, as evidenced in U.S. industry by the requirement stated in Federal OSHA regulation 1910.95: "(b)(1) When employees are subjected to sound exceeding those listed in Table G-16, feasible administrative or engineering controls shall be utilized." In actual practice, engineering controls are of first preference, while the second step is administrative noise controls, reducing noise exposures by removing personnel from high-noise environments. The third is the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), commonly known as earmuffs and earplugs. Each of these topics is discussed herein. The U.S. Navy has developed and/or implemented many groundbreaking noise control efforts on ships, and that provides the basis of discussion in this article. This article, as an overview of noise control, also addresses issues associated with high-noise environments and consideration of noise control techniques.