# Hearing Safety Checker Estimate your listening-exposure risk against NIOSH (85 dBA/8h, 3 dB exchange), OSHA (90 dBA/8h, 5 dB) and WHO-ITU H.870 weekly allowance — enter level, duration and sessions, or upload the audio you listen to for measured duration and loudness. > Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-hearing-safety-checker - **Category:** Health - **Keywords:** hearing safety, noise dose, niosh, osha pel, safe listening, dBA exposure, weekly sound allowance ## Overview This checker turns the published exposure standards into one honest report. NIOSH's recommended limit (CDC DHHS 98-126) is 85 dBA averaged over 8 hours with a 3 dB exchange rate — every +3 dB halves the allowed time (88 dBA → 4 h, 100 dBA → 15 min). OSHA's legal workplace PEL is 90 dBA over 8 hours with a slower 5 dB exchange rate, and its action level sits at half the dose. The WHO-ITU H.870 safe-listening standard works weekly: 80 dB LAeq for up to 40 hours (children: 75 dB) — the same math phones use for their weekly sound allowance. Enter your typical listening level (a sound-meter app or dosimeter makes it real), duration and weekly sessions, or upload the actual track/podcast for its measured duration and integrated loudness (BS.1770). You get the three doses side by side, the exact safe listening time at your level, and the level to turn down to for your routine to stay inside each standard. Estimates assume a steady level — informational, not medical advice. ## Inputs - **Mode** (select) - **Audio file** (file): The track/podcast you actually listen to - **Average level (dBA)** (number) - **Average listening level of this content (dBA)** (number) - **Duration per session (min)** (number) - **Sessions per week** (number) ## When to use - Checking whether daily headphone or earbud usage exceeds safe weekly sound allowances. - Evaluating occupational or personal audio monitoring setups against NIOSH and OSHA permissible exposure limits. - Analyzing podcast or music files to measure integrated loudness and calculate allowable playback time at target sound levels. ## How it works - Select manual input mode to enter your average sound level in dBA, session duration, and weekly frequency, or select file mode to upload an audio track. - When an audio file is uploaded, the tool extracts its duration and calculates integrated loudness using the ITU-R BS.1770 standard. - The calculator applies exposure formulas using NIOSH (85 dBA, 3 dB exchange rate), OSHA (90 dBA, 5 dB exchange rate), and WHO-ITU H.870 weekly acoustic budgets. - Review an HTML exposure report displaying dose percentages, maximum safe durations, and the exact volume decrease needed to comply with each guideline. ## Use cases - Commuters auditing daily transit listening habits to prevent exceeding weekly smartphone sound allowances. - Audio mixing and mastering engineers calibrating studio listening periods to stay within safe NIOSH daily dosages. - Office workers verifying whether open-ear or active noise-canceling headphone usage during work shifts meets OSHA guidelines. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the primary difference between the NIOSH and OSHA standards? NIOSH uses an 85 dBA 8-hour baseline with a protective 3 dB exchange rate, while OSHA enforces a legal workplace PEL of 90 dBA over 8 hours with a 5 dB exchange rate. ### How does the WHO-ITU H.870 safe listening standard work? WHO-ITU H.870 calculates a weekly sound allowance based on an equivalent continuous sound level of 80 dBA over a 40-hour reference week. ### Which audio file formats are supported for upload? You can upload common audio formats including WAV, MP3, FLAC, M4A, OGG, AAC, and OPUS files up to 100 MB. ### What does a noise dose percentage over 100% indicate? A dose exceeding 100% means your noise exposure surpasses the recommended daily or weekly exposure limit for that specific standard, increasing the risk of hearing damage. ### Is this tool suitable for formal clinical hearing evaluations? No, calculations assume steady sound levels and are intended for informational guidance and preventive awareness, not clinical diagnostic or medical advice. ## Related tools - [Audio to Multitrack MIDI (Draft)](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-to-multitrack-midi): Split a full mix into stems (drums/bass/other/vocals) and transcribe each to MIDI — a multi-track starting point for transcription - [Audio Chord Progression Detector](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-chord-progression-detector): Estimate an audio file's chord sequence locally and download CSV, JSON, SVG, and method notes in one ZIP. - [Audio Melody Contour Extractor](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-melody-contour-extractor): Extract a dominant melody path from audio and export MIDI, note events, a pitch contour, SVG, and JSON in one ZIP. - [Batch Audio Converter](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-batch-converter): Convert multiple audio files between different formats like MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, Opus with quality settings and batch processing - [Audio Codec Swap](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-codec-swap): Change the codec of an audio file within a chosen output format - [DTMF Decoder](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-dtmf-decoder): Detect DTMF touch-tone digits in any recording and recover the keypad sequence with timestamps. 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Up to 10 minutes. - [Audio Resample](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/audio-resample): Change the sample rate of an audio file (e.g., 44.1kHz to 22.05kHz) ## Samples - [Copyright-Free FLAC Audio Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/flac-samples): Lossless FLAC audio samples for testing and development, mirrored from MP3 set with nature sounds and meditation music - [Copyright-Free MP3 Audio Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/mp3-samples): Collection of royalty-free audio samples for testing and development purposes including nature sounds, meditation music, and ambient audio - [Copyright-Free WAV Audio Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/wav-samples): Uncompressed PCM WAV audio samples for testing and development, mirrored from MP3 set with nature sounds and meditation music - [Copyright-Free M4A Audio Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/m4a-samples): Apple iTunes compatible M4A audio samples with AAC encoding, optimized for quality and file size balance