Table 1.

Sound levels obtained from review of the literature for various episodic noise activities queried on the Noise Exposure Questionnaire (NEQ).

Q#	Noise activity category and description of activities	Representative LAeq (dBA) levels from literature			References
		Low	Mid	High
For the following: Representative dBA levels were identified by Neitzel et al., 2004a; references used by Neitzel et al., 2004a listed for each category.
7	Power Tools: use power tools, chain saws, other shop tools, outside of a paid job	75	94	113	Cohen et al., 1970; U.S. Office Noise Abatement & Control, 1978; McClymont & Simpson, 1989
8	Equipment/Machinery: drive heavy equipment, use loud machinery (such as tractors, trucks, or farming or lawn equipment like movers/leaf blowers), outside of a paid job	87	97	106	Jones & Oser, 1968; U.S. Office Noise Abatement & Control, 1978; Holt, 1993
9	Sporting/Entertainment: attend car/ truck races, commercial/school sporting events, music concerts/ dances, and any other events with amplified PA/music systems	81	94	106	Axelsson, 1996; Cohen et al., 1970; Yassi et al., 1993; Roberts, 1999
10	Motorized Vehicles: ride/operate motorized vehicles such as motorcycles, jet skis, speed boats, snowmobiles, or four-wheelers	88	98	107	Cohen et al., 1970; U.S. Office Noise Abatement & Control, 1978; Ross, 1989; McCombe et al., 1994; Bess & Poynor, 1974; Anttonen et al., 1994
11	Aircraft: ride/pilot small aircraft/private airplanes	88	91	94	Tobias, 1969; Cohen et al., 1970; Smith et al., 1975
For the following: Not addressed by Neitzel et al., 2004a; Representative dBA levels identified by authors’ review of literature
13	Musical Instrument: play a musical instrument	74	87	99	O’Brien et al., 2008; Chasin, 2009
14	Music Listening (earphones): listen to music, radio programs, etc. using personal headsets or earphones	60	76	93	Airo et al., 1996; Fligor & Ives, 2006; Portnuff et al., 2009; Rice et al., 1987; Smith et al., 2000; Williams, 2005; Worthington et al., 2009
15	Music Listening (other speakers): listen to music, radio programs, etc. from audio speakers in a car or at home (other than music concerts and earphone use)	70	78	85	Neitzel et al., 2004b; Neitzel personal communication, 2009*
16 & 17	Occupational Noise: work a noisy paid job during summer or school year	80	90	100	Lempert & Henderson (1973); OSHA (1981)**
For the following: Impact-type noise cannot be included in annual LAeq exposure calculation
12	Firearms: around/shoot firearms such as rifles, pistols, shotguns, etc.	non-applicable (impact noise cannot be integrated into annual LAeq)

^*Personal communication from R. Neitzel (4/15/2009) indicated the range for music listening in Neitzel et al. (2004b) was 70 to 85 dBA.

^**Due to OSHA requirements, occupational data are computed using a 5-dB exchange rate; therefore, 5-dB exchange rate data were included to represent the range of typical noisy job exposures. The discrepancy between 3 and 5 dB exchange rates is expected to be small for most occupational situations, 1–3 dB (Royster et al., 2000).