Auditory Risk of Air Rifles

Lankford, James E.; Meinke, Deanna K.; Flamme, Gregory A.; Finan, Donald S.; Stewart, Michael; Tasko, Stephen; Murphy, William J.

doi:10.3109/14992027.2015.1131851

i

Auditory Risk of Air Rifles

Supporting Files

2016
By Lankford, James E. ; Meinke, Deanna K. ; Flamme, Gregory A. ; ...

File Language:

English

Details

Alternative Title:

Int J Audiol
Personal Author:

Lankford, James E. ; Meinke, Deanna K. ; Flamme, Gregory A. ; Finan, Donald S. ; Stewart, Michael ; Tasko, Stephen ; Murphy, William J.
Description:

Objective

To characterize the impulse noise exposure and auditory risk for air rifle users for both youth and adults.

Design

Acoustic characteristics were examined and the auditory risk estimates were evaluated using contemporary damage-risk criteria for unprotected adult listeners and the 120-dB peak limit and LAeq75 exposure limit suggested by the World Health Organization (1999) for children.

Study sample

Impulses were generated by 9 pellet air rifles and 1 BB air rifle.

Results

None of the air rifles generated peak levels that exceeded the 140 dB peak limit for adults and 8 (80%) exceeded the 120 dB peak SPL limit for youth. In general, for both adults and youth there is minimal auditory risk when shooting less than 100 unprotected shots with pellet air rifles. Air rifles with suppressors were less hazardous than those without suppressors and the pellet air rifles with higher velocities were generally more hazardous than those with lower velocities.

Conclusion

To minimize auditory risk, youth should utilize air rifles with an integrated suppressor and lower velocity ratings. Air rifle shooters are advised to wear hearing protection whenever engaging in shooting activities in order to gain self-efficacy and model appropriate hearing health behaviors necessary for recreational firearm use.
Subjects:

Acoustics Acoustic Stimulation Adult Auditory Threshold Child Ear Protective Devices Firearms Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Humans Noise Recreation Risk Assessment Risk Factors Sound Spectrography
Source:

Int J Audiol. 55(Suppl 1):S51-S58.
Pubmed ID:

26840923
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC4896309
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
Volume:

55
Collection(s):

CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:1acb531b0e2a2d516d3ce749bc9a43872df471efaed3d2e4405a1119555b08e6
Download URL:

https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/39845/cdc_39845_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 695.01 KB ]

File Language:

English

ON THIS PAGE

Details Supporting Files

CDC STACKS serves as an archival repository of CDC-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other public health information authored or co-authored by CDC or funded partners.

As a repository, CDC STACKS retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.