Abstract

Background: New technologies mark the modern world, having many positive and negative influences on societies. In spite of the comfort speakers and sound/ audio systems have brought to man’s life, they have been harmful and have created noise pollution. Religious rituals, light. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the level of compliance to the rules of auditory health at different religious ceremonies and centers in Mashhad of Razavi Khorasan, Iran. Material and methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, the sample size of the research was determined through enumeration of all the active mosques of Mashhad in Iran. For determining the distribution of sound pressure level in mosques, networking method and for measuring, sound level meter (TES 1358) was utilized. Results: The average sound pressure level during religious rituals, lectures and mourning ceremonies (chest beating) was 87.14, 90.31, and 93.91 dB in the C frequency weighing network. Comparing sound pressure level in the A frequency weighing network in the morning ceremony with the standard of the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) showed a statistically significant difference (P-value=0.013). Conclusions: Since religious rituals take an average time of 2 hours, audio players should be adjusted to have a sound pressure level of 80 dB. In this way, exposure this sound pressure level for 2 to 3 hours based on the standard of WHO, would be noticeably risky.