Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Introduction: Noise is one of the most common health hazards at the workplaces that can cause not only somatic problems, but also adversely affect mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate occupational noise exposure and noise annoyance in one of the petrochemical companies.

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Material and Method: The study population included 47 people working in Administrative and Manufacturing parts of the petrochemical company. First, dosimetry of production workers and noise frequency analysis of Administrative employees were performed. Then, self-report questionnaire for the assessment of noise annoyance at workplace was completed by the subjects. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: scoring of the noise intensity in the workplace, scoring of the noise annoyance in the workplace and determining the feelings and emotions (e.g. fatigue, sleepiness, and concentration problems) that experienced by subjects during the working day.

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Result: The results of noise dosimetry measurements showed that mean eight hour equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level was 86.13 dBA. According to the frequency analysis of office rooms, mean noise level and Preferred Noise-Criteria (PNC) was 69.4 dBA and 62 dB, respectively. The findings of our analysis revealed that 17.9% of administrative staff and 63.2% of manufacturing workers assigned “very high” score to the noise intensity in the workplace. The annoyance score was obtained “very annoyed” by 10% of employees of office section and 42% of manufacturing workers. For noise-related complaints and sensations defined by subjects, 49% of administrative staff and 60% of manufacturing workers marked the “sometimes” and “more” item of the questionary.

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Conclusion: Based on the obtained results of investigating the noise level (objective exposure) as well as the noise annoyance (subjective exposure) at the studied company, it is necessary to adopt the management –technical noise reduction measures at manufacturing sectors as the personal noise exposure and environmental noise exposure and also noise personal exposure of administrative staff can be decreased.