Exposure to occupational noise is a significant yet often overlooked hazard to which workers are exposed in the course of their work. Noise is the mechanical agitation of air that reaches the human ear and which may be received as comprehensible or incomprehensible auditory information. An example of noise generally is the sound of traffic from a road beside which a person may be walking, where the combined sound of vehicle engines, exhausts, tires, and movement creates a background noise whose concentration may affect health, causing stress, disturbing sleep, and resulting in heart disease. Noise is a ubiquitous and present element of human life as a consequence of mechanisation and technologisation, where human ears are continually exposed to noise energy.
Noise energy arises from mechanical vibration or agitation of physical objects. These can be from the running of a motor such as in an idling truck, the turning of a fan such as that in an overhead vent, the accumulated noise from a general source such as the bustle of a construction site, the clatter of a kitchen, or the rumble of an intercity highway. All of these areas and activities generate agitations of the air which reach the ear of the human receiver. The human ear is a delicate organ composed of tissues, bones, and nerves whose responsibility is the transduction of the mechanical agitation of air into electrical signals which, when comprehended by the brain, are perceived as audible noise when they occur within certain ranges of sound power and sound frequency. The issue is that noises which do not cause pain immediately may still be harmful over an extended period where the accumulative dose of a low-energy noise, like the turning and driving of an industrial laundry, may be comparable in effect to that of the immediate dose of a high energy noise such as a gunshot.
The reason for this is that the sensing apparatus of the human ear are muscular as much as they are bony and neurological, and so they need time to recover from the effort of hearing in the same way as a marathon runner needs to recover from the effort of a race. However, where a marathon runner's race is done in five hours or less, the human ear never stops working, never is at rest, and the effect of regular exposures are cumulative, resulting in the destruction of the delicate sensing cells in the human ear. Noise-induced damage to the inner ear hair cells usually occurs in the high-pitched frequency range of 4000–6000 Hz. This range is critical for understanding speech and the nuances involved with speech. In contrast to other forms of hearing loss, the person suffering from noise-induced hearing loss can hear well, but cannot understand speech when spoken to them.
Noise may damage hearing directly as well as cause problems in health from other means. Noise is distinct to sound in that while sound refers to any vibration that can be heard, noise includes those sounds that are unwanted, unpleasant, or disruptive. Disruptive noise can cause interruptions to speech, thought, action, and concentration - just think of every time you've been trying to have a conversation and a coffee machine has gone off, or whenever you've been trying to think and someone has called you in the middle of your concentration. Noise that causes interruptions can cause stress as well as pain, even when the noise is comprehensible it can still be unwanted or unpleasant. In this way, noise can be a psychological as well as physiological stressor.
Control of noise risks in line with those recommendations suggested by the Hierarchy of Controls indicates that where exposures cannot be otherwise mitigated by elimination, substitution or engineering, administrative and personal controls must be used. Earplugs and work rotations are common means by which noise exposures are mitigated, however the ubiquity of noise in the human environment can expose a worker to harm from many separate sources. Management of the working environment with respect to those noises that are conveyed into and generated from working areas is necessary both in consideration and in protection of workers during their duties of work.
Each workplace is different, with different demands, methods of business, and is staffed by people whose capacities, needs, and risk profiles are different. Managing ergonomic, environmental, and occupational health and safety challenges requires a business to examine and engage with the ecosystem of factors that give rise to risk, and how that risk may affect people. Each workplace is different and so sometimes the same problem will require different solutions. This applies to workers as well - every person is different and so may require different support, supervision, or resources to perform comfortably and sustainably. Under Work Health and Safety law, consultation with the workforce, the control of risk as far as is reasonably practicable, and the provision of information, training, instruction and support to the worker by the workplace, is essential to meet obligations to provide workers with a workplace that is as free of risk as far is reasonably practicable.
In our capacity as consultants, Atlas Physio will explore and scope the business and its needs, examining how exposures, risks, and processes contribute to the hazard ecosystem, best inform the design and arrangement of procedural, policy-based, and practical risk controls. Our solutions are tailored to the needs of those with whom we work, implemented in a simple, sustainable, and supportive fashion, designed to be robust and resilient, and to support the ongoing life of the business as well as the sustainable wellbeing of the workers who undertake the day to day activities of work.
At Atlas Physio, we provide reporting, structured control, and ongoing management of risk onsite, on the road, and wherever work is done. We are open seven days a week, and are happy to offer a brief complimentary discussion to explore the needs of your business and your workers if you are an employer, and your needs if you are a worker. Reach out today to arrange a discussion and take the first step toward managing risk and working safely, supported by expertise that is practical, reliable, and designed to deliver lasting results.