Noise & health
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This study investigated the effect of chronic workplace exposure to excessive noise on sleep quality. It involved 40 male workers aged 33 to 50 years, 20 of whom had been exposed to environmental workplace noise levels of 85 dB or more on 40-hour-a-week jobs. Another 20 workers who were not exposed to excessive noise were used as controls. ⋯ Fisher's exact test revealed no association between altered sleep and hearing status in either group. Our results show that active men working 40-hour-a-week in the presence of excessive noise without adequate protection for more than eight years presented with noise-induced hearing loss but their quality or quantity of night sleep was unaffected. Sensori-neural deafness may represent an element of adaptation against noise during sleep.
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The association of aircraft noise exposure with cognitive performance was examined by means of a cross-sectional field survey. Two hundred thirty six children attending 10 primary schools around Heathrow Airport in west London were tested on reading comprehension, immediate/delayed recall and sustained attention. In order to obtain the information about their background, a questionnaire was delivered to the parents and 163 answers were collected. ⋯ A significant dose-response relationship was found between aircraft noise exposure at home and performance on memory tests of immediate/delayed recall. However there was no strong association with the other cognitive outcomes. These results suggest that aircraft noise exposure at home may affect children's memory.
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Comparative Study
Instruction and the improvement of hearing protector performance.
Too often, in spite of the encouragement of those who advocate the removal of noise from the workplace as the preferred solution to noise exposure, hearing protectors are provided as the first line of defence against noise. Unfortunately hearing protectors are too often supplied with no real instruction or education in their use. This degrades their performance considerably. ⋯ The attenuation performance (SLC80) of the plugs with the instructions was 16 dB greater than without the instructions. Overall performance was improved in every octave band with smaller associated standard deviations. The comparison showed that even with a very modest amount of instruction attenuation performance can be significantly improved.
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Based on extensive and detailed reviews the present paper suggests evaluation criteria for aircraft noise for the prediction of noise effects and for the protection of residents living in the vicinity of (newly constructed or extended) civil airports. The protection concept provides graded evaluation criteria: Critical loads indicate noise loads that shall be tolerated only exceptionally during a limited time. ⋯ Evaluation criteria are provided for various protection goals, for hearing, communication and sleep, for the avoidance of annoyance and of suspected cardiovascular diseases. As protection of the residents is understood as a dynamic process, these criteria must be repeatedly tested and adapted to new scientific findings.
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In preparation of the revised edition of the Air Traffic Noise Act the Federal Environmental Agency formulated targets for aircraft noise control. They were prepared oriented to the Federal Immission Control Act. The assessment periods were chosen analogously to the regulations on other traffic noise sources (rail traffic, road traffic). The control targets cover the following affected areas * aural, extra-aural health * night's sleep * annoyance * communication * recreation Considerable nuisance can be avoided by limiting the exposure to aircraft noise(outside) to equivalent levels below 55 dB(A) by day and 45 dB(A) at night, and impairment of health can be avoided by limiting the exposure to aircraft noise (outside) to equivalent levels below 60 dB(A) by day and 50 dB(A) at night.