The European Regulation 2003/10/EC and the Impact of its Application to the Military Noise Exposure

The European Regulation 2003/10/EC, voted by the European Parliament in 2003, is implemented in most of the countries of the European Community since 2006. This regulation defines different actions to be taken by the employer when the employees are submitted to continuous or impulse noise which exceeds the lower or upper exposure action value. It also defines maximum exposure levels to which employees can be exposed. For continuous noise, these levels are given as daily noise exposure levels (LEX,8h), for impulse noise only the peak pressure level is relevant. The actions to be taken are: at the lower action level (LEX,8h ≥ 80 dB(A) or Lpeak ≥ 135 dB(C)) hearing protectors have to be made available to the worker and at the upper action value (LEX,8h ≥ 85 dB(A) or 137 dB(C)) the hearing protectors have to be used. The exposure limit values (including the hearing protection) are LEX,8h = 137 dB(A) for continuous and Lpeak = 140 dB(C) for impulse noise. As the noise environment to which the soldiers are exposed are often exceeding these values, it is important to analyze the impact of this regulation on the efficiency in training and/or combat. The principal types of noise to which the soldiers are exposed will be presented. The exposure criteria which are used for weapon noise in different countries will be discussed and compared to the European regulation.