This handbook gives basic and comprehensive information on the understanding, measurement, and control of noise in industrial environments. It is intended for engineers with or without acoustical experience; to this end, it presents sections on noise problem analysis, instrumentation, and fundamental methods of noise control, and properties of acoustical materials.Noise is commonly described as unwanted sound. This definition implies a strong subjective element in any assessment of the effects of noise, since what may be tolerated by one person may be intolerable to another. Although noise is by no means a recent phenomenon, it is only with the rapid industrialization of the last century and the concomitant accelerated development of powerful high-speed machinery that it has become a pollutant of major concern. The effects of noise exposure on humans range from disturbance or annoyance to temporary or even irreversible deafness.