Risks to the Hearing of Musicians – Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Sound Exposures in a Non-Professional Orchestra

While risks to the hearing of professional musicians were part of several studies in recent years, little attention was paid to the sound pressure exposure faced by amateur musicians. Thus, around 500,000 amateur musicians in Germany are hardly aware of the risks of high sound pressure levels during regular rehearsals or concerts. With the aim to raise the awareness of the musicians to take possible protective measures into account, e.g., use of personal hearing protectors or less loud performances, several sound immission measurements were carried out during the rehearsals of a non-professionally acting symphonic wind orchestra. Furthermore, in order to determine potential hearing threshold shifts, audiometric measurements were performed. In addition to the objective evaluation, the musicians were asked about their personal feelings during the rehearsals, about their knowledge on possible risks to the hearing and on appropriate protection means. The results show that all members of non-professionally acting orchestras can be exposed to sound pressure levels up to 117 dB(A). With an average rehearsal duration of 2 h, these exposures resulted in equivalent continuous sound pressure levels above 92 dB(A). Additionally, substantial temporary hearing threshold shifts could be monitored after the rehearsals. The evaluation of the subjective survey showed that most of the musicians were not aware of the actual sound pressure levels during the rehearsals, and the associated hearing risk. Similar is true for the necessity of the hearing protection devices which were mainly refused.