Comments on "A re-examination of risk estimates from the NIOSH occupational noise and hearing survey" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101, 950-963 (1997)]

The recent paper by Prince et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101, 950-963 (1997)] uses as a primary outcome measure an estimate of hearing handicap based on a weighted average of pure tone thresholds at 1,2, 3, and 4 kHz. This choice is unusual and inadequately justified. If four equally weighted frequencies are to be chosen, the ANSI standard referenced by Prince et al. would suggest 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. If 1, 2, 3, and 4 kHz are chosen, the weights from ANSI 3.5, 1969 would be very different from those used by Prince et al.