MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF MUSICAL SOUND LEVEL FROM A MOBILE PHONE

Global statistics estimated that at the end of 2018, there were 9.3 billionmobilephone subscriptions, today virtually everyone has a cell phone. Shouldthesephones constitute a health hazard it would be a global pandemic. Soundispartof our daily life and sounds produced from phones are closest to us. This studywas undertaken to measure the frequency spectra of the sound producedbythree phones commonly used in Nigeria to determine if sound level exposuresfrom these phones should warrant the inclusion of a hearing protectionprogramme. Data was collected and evaluated to ascertain the impact of soundfrom three different types of phones: GSM mobile phone made by Nokia(Nokia1280), an android phone made by Infinix (Infinix Note 8) and an Iphonemadeby Apple (iPhone X), using a UT353 BT Mini Sound Meter (BluetoothVersion). The results showed that the total sound pressure levels for Nokia1280was 109.63dB and average of 98.83dB. This value exceeds the NIOSHallowable noise exposure levels of 85dB thus there is a cause for concerninusing Nokia 1280 to play music for a long time. While the total soundpressurelevels for Infinix Note 8 was 96.79dB which was slightly higher thantheNIOSH allowable noise exposure levels of 95dB for 1 hour but onaverageitwas found to be in line with the allowable noise exposure levels of 85dB. Asimilar lower sound level was observed in the Iphone X, an average of 77.25dBand a total of 88.05dB was recorded within an hour period. This is very safe according to the NIOSH Recommendations which stipulates that onlyover a4-hour period of continues sound can this value become a potential healthrisk. Itwas concluded that phones produced more recently takes into consideration the sound pressure levels and are current design following the NIOSHRecommendations, while older phone may pose a health risk as they hadhighervalues of sound pressure levels. It was therefore recommended that moreresearch need be carried out on the sound level measurement of different phonesas this will inform buyers and producers of these devices on thehealthramifications in using these phones.