Ergonomic Evaluation and Safety Countermeasures of Personal Cassette Player Noise

휴대용 카세트 소음의 인간공학적 평가 및 안전대책

Recently, noise from personal cassette players (PCP) poses growing concerns together with occupational noise-induced hearing loss. Eighteen male and female volunteer subjects participated to determine preferred noise levels for PCP usage before, during, and after 2-hour subway riding according to sources (types) of PCP listening (language/news, soft music, and hard music). Audiometric tests were conducted before and after the 2-hour exposure of PCP noise under subway riding. Statistical analyses showed some significant hearing losses with the greatest loss of more than 6 dB at 4000 Hz for both ears, indicating that serious noise-induced hearing loss would potentially occurred due to prolonged use of PCPs. Practical safety countermeasures against PCP noise are further discussed.