Noise level and annoyance of Industrial factories in Duhok city

Abstract

Noise pollution is considered as more important environmental problem, especially in the industrialized and developed countries. Industrial noise is an important source of noise pollution, which annoys and disrupts the daily activities of workers. This study focuses on the industrial noise and its effects on workers. Thirteen different industries chosen randomly in Duhok city, in Kurdistan region, North of Iraq. To cover this study an instrument for measurement the sound level was used, in addition to a questionnaire contains (38) questions to study all the possible reported effects of noise on humans, (90) workers of different industries were chosen, the questionnaires were analysis to determine how much employees were affected by high noise levels in the workplace. During the survey, it has been specified that all industries noise levels measurement are much above the maximum (OSHA) exposure limits. 81.11% of workers are annoyed from the noise in their workplaces. To determine whether the effects of noise were statistically significant or not, a Chi-Square test was used. At a level of significance, p≤0.05, a relationship between duration of employment years and feeling annoyed are statistically significant. It was found that the physiological and psychological effects of noise i.e. headache, disturbs their peace of mind, nervousness, stressful, speech interference and insomnia are statistically significant. However, dizziness is statistically not significant. 65.56% of respondents in these industries are suffering from hearing problems, 34.44% of them have complaints about ringing in ears and only 10% of workers were used EPE.