Noise Pollution Control System in the Hospital Environment

Abstract

Problems related to environmental noise are not a new subject, but they became a major issue to solve because of the increasing, in complexity and intensity, of human activities due technological advances. Numerous international studies had dealt with the exposure of critical patients to noisy environment such as the Neonatal Intensive Care Units; their results show that there are difficulties in the organization in the developing brain, it can damage the delicate auditory structures and can cause biorhythm disorders, specially in preterm infants. The objective of this paper is to present the development and implementation of a control system that includes technical-management-training aspects to regulate the levels of specific noise sources in the neonatal hospitalization environment. For this purpose, there were applied different tools like: observations, surveys, procedures, an electronic control device and a training program for a Neonatal Service Unit. As a result, all noise sources were identified -some of them are eliminable-; all the service stable staff categories participated voluntarily; environmental noise measurements yielded values between 62.5 and 64.6 dBA and maximum were between 86.1 and 89.7 dBA; it was designed and installed a noise control device and the staff is being trained in noise reduction best practices.