Measurement of hazardous personal noise exposure in spice manufacturing industry

Abstract

There are many sources of hazardous noise that contributed to the hearing impairment, that resultant from over exposure noise level from workplace. This study examined the contribution of machine that used in the spice manufacturing towards to the employee. Initially, the background noise of each workstation needed to be measured using a sound level meter. Then, monitoring levels including machine noise levels and daily self-reported duration noise exposure to workers was elucidated. A total of 30 workers were identified as having workplace noise exposures. The average noise levels were between 81 and 97 dBA in high and low noise exposure areas, respectively. The average self-reported workplace noise measure time was 8 hours/day. The estimated mean daily noise exposures were calculated from machine noise were found to be higher than the Factories And Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulations, specifically 90 dBA eight-hour time weighted average (TWA). In addition, 750% of production workers had estimated greater than TWA value exposures. It is therefore recommended that industries either limit workplace use among the production workers or require device and technological advanced to prevent occupational noise-induced hearing loss.