At what dB is hearing protection recommended

• A. 60 dB
• B. 100 dB
• C. 85 dB+
• D. 30 dB

Answer: (C)

Loud sounds can permanently damage hearing, and guidelines set a practical action level at 85 dB averaged over a workday. When noise reaches or exceeds this level, protecting your ears is recommended to keep exposure from accumulating into significant risk. Decibels are a logarithmic scale, so increasing level dramatically increases potential harm, and the idea is to limit both the time spent at high levels and the actual exposure with protection. Wearing earmuffs or earplugs can cut the effective sound by a meaningful amount, and engineering controls to lower noise should be pursued whenever possible. Therefore, the threshold at which hearing protection is recommended is 85 dB or higher.