By – Dr.

PUNEET KAPOOR
Asst. Professor (ASLP)
Dept of ENT
1. BASES OF HEARING SCIENCE (SECOND
EDITION)- JOHN D. DURRANT, Ph.D.
And JEAN H. LOVRINIC, Ph. D.
2. AUDIOLOGY (SIXTH EDITION)- HAYES
A. NEWBY AND GERALD R. POPELKA
3. OCUPATIONAL HEARING LOSS (THIRD
EDITION)- SATALOFF AND SATALOFF.
4. CLINICAL AUDIOLOGY- JACK KATZ.
 The sense of hearing has a special and
individual place in our perceptual world.
It preserves a pre-eminent place as
the primary element in the process of
communication, and the medium for
rich and diverse aesthetic experience
(Prabha, 2000).
 Now, let us go through differnt
definitions of noise given by different
authors:-
 The term noise basically means a sounds
that is loud or unpleasant or
disturbances that accompany and
interfere with an electrical signal.

 The term noise (background noise,

classroom noise, industrial noise) refers
to any auditory disturbances that
interferes with what listeners want to
hear (Finitzo Hieber, 1991)
 In physical terms, noise may be defined
as a sound generally of a random nature,
the spectrum of which does not exhibit
distinct frequency component (Cyril,
Harris 1991).

 The term noise and what is judged as

being noisy can be only broadly defined.
Noise is an undesirable sound (or signal).
The whine of an airplane engine, a
‘’blood-curdling’’ scream, considered as
noises; yet they qualify as complex
tones (Durrant and Lovrinic)
 Background noise refers to any auditory
disturbance within the room that
interferes with what a listener wants to
hear (Crandell et al., 1995).

NOTE:- Background noise in a room

can compromise speech perception by
masking and linguistic cues in the
message. Generally, background noises in
a room mask the weaker consonant
phonemes more than the more intense
vowels.
 Vibrations of any solid object will
produce pressure variations in air that
may be percieved as sound or noise when
the vibration amplitudes are sufficiently
high and the vibration frequencies are in
audible range. Vibration amplitudes are
directly related to the noise levels
produced; thus, reduction of mechanical
amplitudes may be very effective noise
control measure (Sataloff and Sataloff).
 It is necessary to obtain accurate
measurements of the noise levels at various
locations in the vicinity to determine
whether or not an employer has a noise
hazard.

 Noise surveys are conducted usually for

two basic purposes: to evaluate the
hazard of noise for employees so that
suitable protective measures may be
taken to conserve hearing, and to obtain
information concerning the noisiness of
the machinery or manufacturing processes
to improve design or the method of
installation.
 In addition to constituting a hazard to
hearing, noise may interfere with
communication and have other annoying
effects.

 A typical progression in hearing loss due

to noise exposure with the passage of
time (o year, 7 years, 22 years, 46
years)is as shown:-
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