CHAPTER 17 - The Sources of Occupational, Domestic, and Leisure Noise

Abstract

This chapter provides details related to the sources of occupational, domestic, and leisure noise. Industrial processes, construction, and even household and leisure activities generate noise that impinges both upon the people engaged in them and upon outsiders. It is thus necessary to consider both the “internal” and “external” aspects of occupational noise. Like traffic noise, occupational noise has been growing in intensity and in impact. In modern industrial countries, industry absorbs an increasingly large percentage of the labor force; construction of buildings and other structures is occurring at an accelerated pace; households are acquiring a larger number of mechanized appliances. The absolute level of noise produced by machinery has increased almost every generation because of new technological developments. For instance, the introduction of the jet engine has raised the maximum level of noise produced in the past 30 years by man-made devices in the same way that the internal combustion engine increased the noise level of the previous generation.