A simple and rapid measurement procedure is suggested for surveying nonimpulsive, continuous-spectrum acoustic noise. The procedure includes rules for relating sound-level measurements to contemporary damage-risk criteria. The standard A-, B-, and C-scale frequency weightings of the conventional sound-level meter are exploited to make a limited estimate of the noise spectrum. On the basis of analytical approximations to the weighting functions, scale differences are calculated for a number of input-noise spectra. From the calculated differences, rules are deduced to indicate whether hearing-conservation practices are or are not necessary, or whether more-detailed acoustic measurements are desirable.