Industrial Engineering and Management

Assessment and Design of the Physical Environment

Noise

Noise

ƒ Workplaces and other environments may contain

equipment and machinery that produce significant levels
of noise and vibration.

ƒ Every operating machine tool, fan, or compressor in a

building is a potential source of noise.

ƒ Vibration is a less common problem, but a closely related

issue, that may be of concern when people drive vehicles,
operate equipment, or use power tools
Health Effects of Noise

ƒ Exposure to noise can cause a variety of health effects

varying from insomnia and stress to hearing loss.

ƒ Short-term exposure can cause a temporary loss of

hearing, normally referred to as a temporary threshold
shift.

ƒ Prolonged exposure to noise over a period of years

generally causes permanent loss of hearing

Health Effects of Noise

ƒ Incidence of hearing
impairment for people of
different ages exposed to
varying levels of noise at
work.

ƒ Work related noise

exposure level (dbA) is
indicated at the bottom of
the figure.
Health Effects of Noise

ƒ Incidence of hearing
impairment is indicated on
the y-axis and corresponds to
the proportion of people in a
given population who suffer
significant hearing loss.

ƒ Each line describes the

incidence rate for a particular
age group as a function of
noise exposure level

Health Effects of Noise

ƒ As shown in the figure, the

proportion of people suffering
hearing loss increased with
greater noise exposure for
each age group.

ƒ Not surprisingly, older people

had greater percentages of
impairment at all levels of
exposure.
Health Effects of Noise

ƒ About 23% of the people in

the older age group (50 to 59
years old) who did not work in
loud environments were
hearing impaired, compared
to only 2% for people of ages
between 20 and 29 years.

Health Effects of Noise

ƒ When people’s jobs exposed

them to noise levels of 90
dbA, 33% of the older group
hearing was impaired,
compared to 5% for the
youngest group.

ƒ At exposure levels of 100

dbA, the proportions were
respectively 56% and 14%.
At 105 dbA, they increased to
70% and 20%.
Health Effects of Noise

ƒ The sad conclusion is that the

majority of older people
working in noisy
environments had significant
loss of hearing. Younger
people working in extremely
noisy industries were about
as likely to suffer hearing loss
as the nonexposed people
who were 30 years older
(20% vs. 23%).

Health Effects of Noise

ƒ These findings led to the establishment of OSHA noise

exposure limits in 1981.

The OSHA permissible noise limits

Health Effects of Noise

ƒ The following equation describes the allowable exposure

time to noise levels outside the range of those given in the
table

8
T=
2(L – 90)/5

where L is the noise level in dBA

Annoyance and Other Effects of Noise

ƒ Almost all of us will agree that loud noise can be very

annoying.

ƒ A related issue is that noise can greatly interfere with

people’s ability to communicate with each other.

ƒ Some data addressing both topics is available from a

study on noise annoyance and speech interference, in
which subjects listened to words spoken at controlled
levels in a variety of white noise conditions.
Annoyance and Other Effects of Noise

ƒ The subjects wrote down the words if they could identify

them and then rated how annoyed they were by the noise
on a 5-point scale.

ƒ The values and associated verbal anchors were: 1 (not

annoying), 2 (lightly annoying), 3 (moderately annoying), 4
(quite annoying), and 5 (extremely annoying).

Annoyance and Other Effects of Noise

ƒ The relationship between the annoyance ratings and noise

level was determined by regression analysis to be:

Annoyance rating = - 4.798 + 0.106 dBA

ƒ When the noise level was 85 dBA, the average annoyance

rating was about 4.2, indicating the subjects found it quite
annoying, which intuitively seems quite reasonable.
Noise Control Strategies

Principle 4-11. Reduce the noise level of the source itself

ƒ This solution is without doubt the best choice to start with,
and it is likely to be the most cost effective.

ƒ If it is a question of machine noise level, could another,

quieter-operating machine serve as well? If not, identify
why the machine makes noise and then examine the
possibility of making design changes to achieve those
objectives.

Noise Control Strategies

Principle 4-12. Enclose the source

ƒ Enclosures can make machine tending or maintenance
operations far more difficult. Also, machine enclosures can
cause the machines to overheat unless additional cooling
is developed.

ƒ Before enclosing machines, check with the manufacturers

of the machines to see if there is any downside to
enclosing.
Noise Control Strategies

Principle 4-13. Increase the distance between the source and

nearby people
ƒ Moving the machine operation away from nearby
personnel or moving the personnel away from the
operation will help the attenuate the sound before it
reaches the people around it.

ƒ Remember, noise levels decrease approximately with the

square of the distance between the source and the
receiver

Noise Control Strategies

Principle 4-14. Place sound-absorbing and reflecting barriers

in the noise path
ƒ Absorbing materials will help reduce the sound level
energy and reflecting barriers will direct some of that
energy away from surrounding personnel so that the
sound wave will need to go a large distance before
encountering people and, hence, attenuate
Hearing Protection

ƒ Earplugs and earmuffs are commonly used in loud

environments to protect people from excessive exposure
to noise.

ƒ Earplugs are made out of soft materials, such as cotton,

wool, plastic, or wax. When inserted into the ear, earplugs
significantly reduce the amplitude of particular sounds.

Hearing Protection

ƒ The earplug should fit snugly in the outer ear entrance

without leaving any openings around the plug through
which sound might intrude.

ƒ Earplugs also should have a retaining ring, protrusion, or

other feature to both keep them from being inserted too far
into the ear, and make it easier to remove them. Along
these lines, some designs attach a cord or bracket to the
plug, which allows them to be easily removed
Hearing Protection

ƒ earmuffs often come in a wide variety of designs. In some

cases, earmuffs are combined with other forms of
personal protections, such as helmets or face shields,
Also sometimes include speakers and microphones.

ƒ Traditionally, earmuffs have provided a passive form of

protection, by acting as a barrier between the source of
the noise and the exposed ear. More recently, the passive
aspect of earmuffs has been supplemented with electronic
features, such as noise cancellation and sound
amplification

Hearing Protection

ƒ earmuffs often come in a wide variety of designs. In some

cases, earmuffs are combined with other forms of
personal protections, such as helmets or face shields,
Also sometimes include speakers and microphones.

ƒ Traditionally, earmuffs have provided a passive form of

protection, by acting as a barrier between the source of
the noise and the exposed ear. More recently, the passive
aspect of earmuffs has been supplemented with electronic
features, such as noise cancellation and sound
amplification
Hearing Protection

ƒ There are a number of ergonomic issues associated with

the use of hearing protection.
ƒ One issue is that human heads and ears vary in size and
shape. This variability can make it difficult to fit certain
people, and may impact both the effectiveness and comfort
of hearing protection.
ƒ Another point is that wearing earplugs or earmuffs can
interfere with verbal communication, and the ability to do the
job, these are the most common reasons given by workers
for not using hearing protection