Measurement strategies for occupational noise exposure assessment : a comparison study in different industrial environments

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the impact resulting from the adoption of different strategies for assessing workers’ occupationalnoiseexposure. With this purpose, several industrial workplaces were selected, based on the variability of the exposure time and the tasks’ duration. Noiseexposureassessment was made using the three strategies proposed in ISO 9612:2009, and computing the corresponding daily exposure level and associated uncertainty. The results obtained showed that the strategies recommended by that standard for each specific case represented the lowest time-consuming ones, both considering the preparation and measurement times and, with few exceptions, also led to lower values for the associated expanded uncertainty. This is particularly true in fixed workstations or in workplaces with predictable work patterns. However, if the selection was exclusively based on uncertainty values, it can be questionable whether there is room for the application of the JBM strategy, or, alternatively, if it is more straightforward to opt always for the FDM strategy, as the experimental procedures are simpler (even if the measuring time is longer). Ultimately, the present work is a contribution towards improving the measurement procedure for the assessment of occupational daily noiseexposure.