Risk of Auditory Injury Caused by Area-Effect Flashbangs: Multiple Area-Distributed Impulses and the Role of the Acoustic Reflex

March, 2021
IDA document: D-21609
FFRDC: Systems and Analyses Center
Type: Documents
Division: Science and Technology Division , Science, Systems and Sustainment Division
Authors:
Authors
Jessica G. Swallow, Emily A. Fedele, Felicia D. Sallis-Peterson See more authors
In this report, we apply a bounding approach to estimating the risk of hearing loss for multi-impulse, area-distributed sound exposure scenarios. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we also explore the role of variables such as the number of impulses, their spatial distribution, and the uncertainty in individual impulse intensity on the expected risk of injury. We show that the uncertainty in the estimate of injury risk is greater for more intense exposures or those with more impulses, and we demonstrate the importance of accounting for sound output variation and multi-impulse distribution in mapping risk of injury within an area.