A field survey on annoyance caused by sounds from small firearms

Abstract

In this study, the results of a field survey on annoyance caused by sounds from small firearms are presented. Dose–response relationships were determined for about 400 randomly selected residents around two military and three civil shooting sites. After completion of personal interviews, extensive sound measurements with different time-weightings were carried out. Also, for the same respondents, the subjective effects of road-traffic sounds were determined enabling a comprehensive comparison of dose–response relations for impulse sounds and road-traffic sounds. The results show that A-weighted equivalent sound-pressure level, Leq , is a better acoustical measure for the prediction of annoyance caused by shooting sounds than the mean‘‘impulse’’ or ‘‘fast’’ time-weighted levels of individual impulses. The results of a principal components analysis showed that the subjective effects of the shooting sounds could be reduced to one overall psychological dimension with high negative loadings on object-centered and subject-centered annoyances, moderate positive loadings on perceived quality of the environment and high positive loadings on habituation to the impulse sounds. From the comparison of the dose–response relations for shooting and road-traffic sounds, it could be concluded that at least for relatively low and moderate levels, the A-weighted Leq of shooting sound is about 13 dB lower than that of equally annoying road-traffic sound.