California Code of Regulations
Title 8 - Industrial Relations
Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations
Chapter 4 - Division of Industrial Safety
Subchapter 7 - General Industry Safety Orders
Group 15 - Occupational Noise and Ergonomics
Article 105 - Control of Noise Exposure
Appendix B - Audiometric Measuring Instruments

I. In the event that pulsed-tone audiometers are used, they shall have tone on-time of at least 200 milliseconds.

II. Self-recording audiometers shall comply with the following requirements:

(a) The chart upon which the audiogram is traced shall have lines at positions corresponding to all multiples of 10 dB hearing level within the intensity range spanned by the audiometer. The lines shall be equally spaced and shall be separated by at least 1/4 inch. Additional increments are optional. The audiogram pen tracings shall not exceed 2 dB in width.

(b) It shall be possible to set the stylus manually at the 10-dB increment lines for calibration purposes.

(c) The slewing rate for the audiometer attenuator shall not be more than 6 dB/sec except that an initial slewing rate greater than 6 dB/sec is permitted at the beginning of each new test frequency, but only until the second subject response.

(d) The audiometer shall remain at each required test frequency for 30 seconds (± 3 seconds). The audiogram shall be clearly marked at each change of frequency and the actual frequency change of the audiometer shall not deviate from the frequency boundaries marked on the audiogram by more than 3 seconds.

(e) It must be possible at each test frequency to place a horizontal line segment parallel to the time axis on the audiogram, such that the audiometric tracing crosses the line segment at least six times at that test frequency. At each test frequency, the threshold shall be the average of the midpoints of the tracing excursions.