When is Workplace Noise Dangerous?
The only way to know for sure is to have the noise evaluated by someone trained to conduct a sound survey. This includes individuals trained to use a sound-level meter and a dosimeter and who have the skills to interpret the data collected.
Below is a list of three different types of surveys:
- Basic survey (area monitoring): Use a sound-level meter to identify areas in the workplace that may put workers' hearing at risk.
- Detailed survey (personal monitoring): Use a sound-level meter and a dosimeter to monitor and estimate an individual's daily noise exposure.
- Engineering survey: Measure noise levels produced by machinery in different operating modes to find ways to eliminate or control the noise.
An effective noise survey should provide sufficient information to understand a noise problem, identify its sources, and determine how to control it. However, it is important to narrow the survey's focus to avoid being overwhelmed with more information than necessary for making informed decisions.
"Yeah, that machine used to be noisy... but it's not so loud any more."
Think about it this way. You can walk across a grassy yard a couple of times every day without causing any damage to the grass; however, if you continually walk back and forth, you eventually beat down the grass, forming a path. The grass loses its ability to spring back. It just lies down and eventually dies. In a similar manner, continuous loud noise beats down the hair cells in the cochlea of your inner ear. Eventually, they lose the ability to spring back. The big difference, however, is that while grass can grow back, those hair cells in your ear won't. When you consider that you only have around 16,000 hair cells in each ear, and they are thinning out from the day you are born, it's important to take good care of them.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
7-4. Which type of monitoring identifies areas in the workplace that may put workers' hearing at risk?
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