Noise & health
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It has been twenty-five years since the final version of the Hearing Conservation Amendment was issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the U. S. Department of Labor. ⋯ Some of the noise regulation's provisions are embarrassingly outdated, some are in dire need of improvement, and others, such as the requirements for engineering noise control, are not being enforced. Sadly, there seems to be little progress in reducing overall noise exposure levels. What needs to be done at this point is a major overhaul of the noise regulation: recommitment to engineering noise control; reduction of the permissible exposure limit (PEL) to 85 dBA; a shift to the 3-dBA exchange rate; and a nationwide assessment of hearing loss in American workers to determine the effectiveness of current hearing conservation measures to identify and address the weaknesses in programs and regulations.
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High levels of noise in hospitals may interfere with patient care services, the doctor-patient relationship and medical education activities. The aim of this study was to assess the noise level at different places in a tertiary care hospital and suggest measures to reduce the noise. Sound levels of fourteen places inside the hospital were recorded using a Digital Sound Level Meter. ⋯ G (Obstetrics and Gynecology) ward (71.86 dBA) and mortuary (57.08 dBA) respectively. The morning hours showed higher levels of noise in most of the places probably due to overcrowding and higher vehicular movement. This study highlights the need for noise monitoring and control measures inside hospital areas.
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In order to determine the influence of noise sensitivity on sleep, subjective sleep quality, annoyance, and performance after nocturnal exposure to traffic noise, 12 women and 12 men (age range, 19-28 years) were observed during four consecutive nights over a three weeks period. After a habituation night, the participants were exposed with weekly permuted changes to air, rail and road traffic noise. ⋯ Correlations were found between noise sensitivity and subjective sleep quality in terms of worsened restoration, decreased calmness, difficulty to fall asleep, and body movements. The results suggest that alterations of subjective evaluation of sleep were determined by physical parameters of the noise but modified by individual factors like noise sensitivity.
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The review provides an overview of epidemiological studies that were carried out in the field of community noise and cardiovascular risk. The studies and their characteristics are listed in the tables. Risk estimates derived from the individual studies are given for 5 dB(A) categories of the average A-weighted sound pressure level during the day. ⋯ The health endpoints are mean blood pressure, hypertension and ischaemic heart disease, including myocardial infarction. Study subjects are children and adults. The evidence of an association between transportation noise and cardiovascular risk has increased since the previous review published in Noise and Health in the year 2000.
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The goals of this study were twofold. First, we assessed if waking salivary hormone profiles are altered by nighttime noise exposure in a laboratory environment. Second, we evaluated the potential influence that sleeping in the lab in itself may have had on salivary biomarkers, by comparing results obtained following sleep at home. ⋯ However, subjects did report more sleepiness during the evening (8 pm) following the 2nd night in the laboratory. In general, overall sleep quality was rated slightly higher upon awakening from sleep at home. Factors that might have contributed to the observations in this study are discussed, including those related to the potentially non-representative sample.