Thread: Suppressor effectiveness - Think about this!

The primary effect of any permanent noise-induced hearing loss is depopulation of outer hair cells and this is particularly true of damage from continuous noise, eg chainsaws. High energy pressure spikes , eg gunfire, have a more diffuse effect on the whole Organ Of Corti. Outer hair cells are but one part of the Organ.

I think you need to forget 115dB(A) as it's not relevant to your area of concern. You need to be concerned with limiting peak exposure at any time to under 140SPL. In practice, this level is based on the integration time of traditional peak-hold instruments. I'm not aware of what time domain parameters current digitally-based instrumentation can alter.