Creating the first domestic noise dosimeterIn recent years, with growing aware-ness of occupational health issues, the personal noise exposure of workers in their workplace environments has begun receiving significantly more attention. In 2021, in its World Report on Hearing, WHO declared that “…hearing loss occurs in people of all ages, not just the elderly; hearing loss is preventable and treatable; and there is a need to heighten the priority of care related to hearing loss.” In response to this report, in April 2023, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revised the Guidelines for the Prevention of Noise-Induced Impair-ments (No. 2 in Notification no. 0420 by the Chief of the Labour Standards Bureau) to strengthen measures against such health hazards. Against this backdrop, we are releas-ing the NB-14, Japan’s first domestically manufactured noise dosimeter* capable of measuring the volume of noise to which an individual has been exposed to, rather than just the general workplace noise levels. This small, palm-sized device offers significant potential to improve occupational health in Japan, although a number of obstacles stood in the way of its development.Behind the development of the NB-14 were two research trends at Rion. The NC-75 sound calibratorAS-05 Viewer data management softwareNB-14 and its dedicated USB cableApp for presentingmeasurement resultsDevices required to measure personal noise exposure*Data obtained with the NB-14 can be managed and viewed via a dedicated USB cable on a PC with the AS-05 Viewer data management software and other apps for presenting measurement results. For precise measurements, we recommend use of the NC-75 to perform sound calibrations before and after the measurement as a proper procedure.* Before the NB-14, noise dosimeters were all foreign-made. The NB-14 is the first domestic noise dosimeter (according to Rion’s research as of June 2023).first was the Noise Dosimeter Develop-ment Project, which focused on hard-ware development, carried out by a team of engineers led by Naru Sato. This team embodies the expertise in sound level meter development that has accumulated over the years at Rion. The other is the Project for Preventing Noise-induced Hearing Loss established in 2019 within the New Market Development Group, whose project leader is Takeshi Nakaichi, a hearing expert. These two trends merged to launch the NB-14 develop-ment project.RION released its first sound level meter in 1955. With its nearly 70 years of experience developing sound level meters, the initial attitude was that devel-oping a noise exposure meter wouldn’t be unusually challenging. But the endeavor proved more difficult than first thought, due largely to the different target user base of those who would use sound level meters and noise dosimeters. In general, sound level meters are used by sound and noise experts. In contrast, those who use noise exposure meters tend to be corpo-rate health and safety managers, who are in charge of managing worker health; in short, people who often have little to no professional knowledge of sound. What sort of product would be easy to use and apply, even for such users? Research was the first step in the development of NB-14.* The term personal noise exposure refers to the level and duration of noise to which a worker is exposed.3
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