Author(s)

Lim-Kyu Lee, Ju-Hyun Kim, Bokyung Kim, Junghwan Kim

Department of Physical Therapy, College of Public Health & Welfare, Yongin University, Yongin, Korea.
Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate Scool, Yongin University, Yongin, Korea.
Department of Physiology, Institute of Functional Genomics, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea.

Noise is known that the physical risk factors defined as any unwanted sound. It can induce the health problems such as hearing loss or annoyance. The objective of this study was to assess the occupational noise exposure of nine groups for twenty peoples according to job characteristics and to compare the noise level by different variables. Personal noise levels were measured for three times using by dosimeters for each participant in Korea. The mean time weighted average noise level (TWA) of total was 73.2 ± 11.5 dBA by American conference of governmental industrial hygienists (ACGIH) standard. Especially, Korean classical music students were highly exposed to 93.2 ± 6.2 dBA but, office workers were 63.2 ± 6.6 dBA. In case of peak sound pressure level (L_peak), Korean classical music students and firefighters were exposed to the highest level of 151.8 dBC and 145.8 dBC during playing and dispatching, respectively. The analysis of noise level showed that L_eq had positive correlations between TWA by ministry of employment and labour (MOEL) (r = 0.98, p < 0.01) and TWA by ACGIH (r = 0.98, p < 0.01). Unlikely other groups, the noise exposure level of the Korean classical music students were exceeded the ACGIH standard. These results suggest that Korean classical music students were exposed high noise level and some solutions are need to reduce the noise exposure level such as using hearing protect device.

Occupational Noise Exposure; Job Characteristics; Dosimeters; Noise Level

Lee, L. , Kim, J. , Kim, B. and Kim, J. (2012) Analysis of occupational noise for the healthy life according to the job characteristics. Health, 4, 897-903. doi: 10.4236/health.2012.410137.