U.S. Standards on Workplace Noise Trail Those of Other Countries Noise levels recorded at nearly a dozen restaurants, gyms and bars in New York City reached heights that, if sustained over as little as two hours, would violate standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers" hearing. But even if the regulations were heeded, many audiologists say, they would not protect hearing enough: federal noise protection standards lag behind much of the industrialized world's. OSHA requires that workers exposed to an average of 90 decibels - about as loud as truck traffic - for eight hours wear hearing protection. Under the agency's measurements, when the volume increases by five decibels, the noise dose doubles, and so the permissible exposure time is cut in half - if levels reach 95 decibels, the maximum exposure without hearing protection is four hours. But many other countries, and even some agencies in the United States, adhere to stricter standards. Britain has a Web site where people can calculate their daily doses of noise. Under the stricter guidelines, workers may not be exposed to 85 decibels for more than eight hours a day without hearing protection. Several agencies have also concluded that the risk of hearing loss doubles with every three-decibel increase, not five. Laura Kauth, an audiologist and president of the National Hearing Conservation Association, said, "The general consensus of professionals in the hearing-health field is that we should limit at 85 decibels" with a 3-decibel standard for when noise dose doubles. Under those standards, at 99 decibels (the average sound level recorded one recent Saturday night at Beaumarchais, a restaurant in Manhattan) the maximum recommended exposure is 19 minutes. Yet enforcement of noise regulations at restaurants, gyms and bars in New York City is almost unheard-of. Noise complaints from workers at these places are rarely, if ever, reported to OSHA, it said. Part of the problem may be a lack of awareness. At the national level, the only federal body tasked specifically with overseeing environmental noise was the Office of Noise Abatement and Control, which lost its financing three decades ago. Alice Suter, an audiologist who has worked for OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said part of the reason federal noise standards lagged behind those of comparable countries was stiff resistance to even the suggestion of tougher standards. "It all has to do with economics and the regulatory process," Dr. Suter said. It's getting harder and harder for OSHA to issue new regulations and revise old ones. Not that OSHA has not tried. In 2010, the agency announced plans to dust off a long-ignored requirement that employers soundproof noisy workplaces and not merely provide hearing protection, which was originally intended to be a temporary fix. Too many workers, the agency said, were being harmed by loud noise. Opposition came swiftly from the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which argued that the guidelines would be too costly. A month after making the proposal, OSHA withdrew it.