Sound levels from personal cassette players

Techniques have been devised whereby the levels at which users of personal cassette players listen to tape-recorded sounds through lightweight headphones may be measured and expressed in terms of free-field equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels. Data have been obtained on over 60 users of such devices who variously listened, in laboratory and field conditions, to music and speech against quiet and noisy backgrounds. The results have been interpreted in terms of noise exposure. Comparison with damage risk criteria indicates that 5% of the sample are listening in such a manner that habitual use would constitute a damage risk to hearing.