Kurtosis corrected sound pressure level as a noise metric for risk assessment of occupational noises.

Current noise guidelines use an energy-based noise metric to predict the risk of hearing loss, and thus ignore the effect of temporal characteristics of the noise. The practice is widely considered to underestimate the risk of a complex noise environment, where impulsive noises are embedded in a steady-state noise. A basic form for noise metrics is designed by combining the equivalent sound pressure level (SPL) and a temporal correction term defined as a function of kurtosis of the noise.