Abstract
Views toward acceptable noise tolerance standards as expressed in a recent poll of persons interested in various aspects of noise and hearing problems were compared with those noted for the same group in a similar poll taken' ten years ago. There now exists a greater readiness to establish tentative noise exposure limits and also greater agreement as to their actual specification. An evaluation suggested that most of the proposed criteria would be equally effective, in at least the speech frequencies, in minimizing hearing losses. Estimates of tolerable limits for intermittent exposures to broad-band noise were much more variable than those found for continuous noise. Marked differences in opinion regarding tolerable narrow-band noise exposure limits were also noted.
