Etymotic ER-200 Personal Noise Dosimeter

Help Save Your Hearing with this Personal Noise Dosimeter to measure your exposure to sound levels.

Have you ever wondered just how loud your environment is? Hearing loss from loud sound affects millions of people. Noise-induced hearing loss is preventable, but how do you know how long you can listen to loud sounds without risking damage to your hearing?   A single noise exposure may not result in hearing loss, but permanent damage to the inner ear from noise adds up over time. The accumulation of too much noise day by day, year after year, is the determining factor in hearing loss risk. A sound level meter is a device that measures noise at a particular point in time, while a dosimeter measures sound levels for many hours and calculates the cumulative noise dose in percent.

Daily noise dose is determined by both the intensity of the sound and the amount of exposure time. A 100% dose means that a person has reached the maximum noise exposure for the day, and continued exposure to loud sound could lead to hearing loss. Ideally, hearing protection should be used before the dose reaches 100% since dose limits are based on averages, and some ears are more susceptible to noise damage than others. When the noise dose exceeds 50% a person has reached half the maximum noise exposure for the day and it’s a good idea to use hearing protection to prevent over-exposure, particularly if a 50% dose reading is reached early in the day.

2 Modes of Operation

• Quick Check
  • 2-minute test calculates dose per hour
  • Estimates potential risk of over-exposure (e.g., high-noise areas, power tools, concerts, sporting events)
• Normal
  • Continuously measures noise up to 16 hours
  • Auto power-off after 16 hours

The Dosimeter uses 3-AAAA batteries (included).  Also included are wind screens, interpretation chart and user manual.

The default settings used by the ER-200 for calculation of noise dose are consistent with ANSI S1.25–1991 (R2002) Specification for Personal Noise Dosimeters.