title: Strains and stresses of workers caused by exposure to noise.
abstract: This paper examines basic aspects of determining strain due to noise on workers in an industrial environment. Technological development enables better working conditions which then demands changes in methods for measuring strain and stress loadings. A modified method is now presented since the existing method for determining strains caused by exposure to noise is proving insufficient. The objective of the modified method is to eliminate the shortcomings of the existing method by taking into account the complex effects of noise in specific working environments. The effects of exposure to noise will be assessed by using a new strain-assessment procedure which incorporates the effects of nature of noise, characteristics of noise, current standards on protection from noise, and the influence of noise on different jobs. This new noise-assessment approach uses new measurement techniques based on tonality and impulsive noise corrections. The modified method has been tested at various workplaces in the metal-working industry. A comparison of the results obtained by using both methods confirms the suitability of the modified method, thus providing a more complete approach to evaluating strain due to noise.
authors.affiliation: University of Maribor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory for Production and Operations Management, Maribor, Slovenia. andrej.polajnar@uni-mb.si
authors.forename: Andrej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polajnar
authors.forename: Natasa Vujica
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.forename: Borut
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Buchmeister
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jevsnik
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009623:Noise, Occupational / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016272:Occupational Health; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*