Analytical Approach for Workplace Noise Assessment

Abstract

This paperd iscusseasn analyticaal pproachfo r assessinngo iseh azardin industriawl orkplaces. Initially,t he data about machinen oise levelsa nd machinel ocationsis usedt o constructa noise contour map of the workplace. From the contour map, potentialn oise hazardousa reasw ithin the facilitya re identifiedb y comparingth eir noisel evelsw ith the permissiblneo isee xposureli mits. In the caseo f multiplee xposuresa, partialn oised ose is determinedfr om the noisel evel and work durationw ithin a given area. This computationis repeatedfo r all areasi n which the worker is expectedto work. A daily noised osei s calculatedb y summingt he parliald oseso ver the 8-hour period. Finally.a n 8-hourt ime weighteda verage(T WA) soundl evel( in decibel-l) is determined. The predictedT WA soundl eveli s thenc omparedw ith thep ermissibleex posurele vel. This approach can be usedt o studyt he changei n workplacen oisel evelsw hen a new machinei s installedin the facility and investigateh ow workers' healthc an be affected. It also enabless afetyp ractitionersto quicklyd eterminea reasw heret heu seo f hearingp rotectiond evicesis required.