Abstract
Woodwork is one of the occupations with high levels of noises. This pilot study attempted to simulate woodworkers’ occupational noise exposure by integrating frequency spectra measured from individual power tools with the respective time of tool use. Five volunteering woodworkers participated in the study, and each wore a noise dosimeter with 1/1 octave-band analysis during the work for exposure assessment. The information of use of tools and time of tool use was recorded by an on-site technician. Frequency spectra of common power tools, including circular saw, electric curve saw, orbit sander, router trimmer, drill machine, pillar drill machine, nail gun, and air compressor, were also individually measured by the dosimeter. Monte Carlo simulation was used to simulate the distances between tools and workers, which were used to determine noise levels in the modeling. The personal measurements of noise exposure were around 80 dBA with peaks locating between 1 and 4 kHz and were fairly matched by the simulated results. This pilot modeling is seemingly feasible and promising, and noise exposure could be assessed by multiple times of tool use with known noise characteristics of the tools. The convenient dose estimates could be useful for the hearing protection of woodworkers.
Highlights
Occupational noise is considered the major cause of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), which is sensorineural, usually bilateral, and irreversible with an early sign of “notching” at the high frequencies of 3, 4, or 6 kHz of the spectrum [1,2]
To protect workers from hearing impairment or loss, the International Labor Organization (ILO) recommended a warning and a dangerous limits of noise levels of 85 and 90 decibels measured on the A scale for time-weighted average (TWA)
Circular saw appeared to be the major tool to use for woodwork, and nail gun and air compressor were used by all workers
Summary
Occupational noise is considered the major cause of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), which is sensorineural, usually bilateral, and irreversible with an early sign of “notching” at the high frequencies of 3, 4, or 6 kHz of the spectrum [1,2]. Efforts to minimize the incidence of NIHL have been made in countries around the world, the global burden of NIHL is a significant health issue. According to a recent document of the World Health Organization (WHO), the global improvements on NIHL after the year 2000 were limited as a whole; there were even 27% of countries in the Americas that lacked legislation regarding PELs for occupational noise [5]. NIHL continues to be a prevalent health issue across a variety of industries, among which woodwork is of concern because of exposure to occupational noise at high levels [6,7,8,9,10,11].
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