Daily noise dose and power tool characterization of steel stud framers on commercial construction sites.

IF 1.8 4区医学 Q3 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Annals Of Work Exposures and Health Pub Date : 2025-04-24 DOI:10.1093/annweh/wxaf005

David Schutt, Tiffany Lipsey, Mike Van Dyke, William J Brazile

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Abstract

The construction industry is well-documented as having numerous sources of hazardous noise on the job. Framers who cut and install steel studs on commercial construction sites use a variety of power tools throughout the course of their normal workday and have the potential to be exposed to levels of noise that can lead to occupational noise-induced hearing loss. This study assessed the noise dose of commercial steel stud framers and characterized the noise of common power tools that contribute to their daily noise dose. Occupational exposure limits exist in both required and recommended forms to protect workers; however, large differences in the level of worker protection are apparent between the mandated Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limit (PEL) and the voluntary National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) for noise exposure. Steel stud framers in this study had a mean OSHA PEL dose of 27.6% and a mean NIOSH REL dose of 340.7% for the same workers. As a comparison, ambient equivalent noise doses at the construction site were 1.4% for PEL criteria and 12.4% for REL criteria. Of task assignments during the workday, workers who were assigned primarily as saw operators had statistically significant higher noise exposures than workers who were assigned as stud installers (P = 0.037). Octave band analysis was conducted for full-day exposures and indicated an upward trend of higher noise exposures at higher frequencies. Overall, among all steel stud framers involved in this study, all workers had noise doses below the OSHA PEL (range 5.8% to 61.4%), and all but 2 workers (n = 35) had noise doses above the NIOSH REL (range 63.9% to 823.2%), indicating exposure to hazardous levels of noise based on more protective RELs.

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商业建筑工地钢柱框架的日噪声剂量和电动工具特性。

建筑行业有充分的证据表明，在工作中有许多有害的噪音来源。在商业建筑工地切割和安装钢钉的制铁工人在正常的工作日中使用各种电动工具，并且有可能暴露在可能导致职业性噪音引起的听力损失的噪音中。本研究评估了商业钢钉框架的噪音剂量，并描述了普通电动工具的噪音对他们的日常噪音剂量的影响。为保护工人，规定和建议的职业接触限值都存在；然而，在强制规定的职业安全与健康管理局（OSHA）允许暴露限值（PEL）和自愿规定的国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）建议的噪声暴露限值（REL）之间，工人保护水平明显存在很大差异。在这项研究中，钢铁钉架工人的OSHA PEL平均剂量为27.6%，NIOSH REL平均剂量为340.7%。作为比较，建筑工地的环境等效噪声剂量按PEL标准为1.4%，按REL标准为12.4%。在工作日的任务分配中，主要被分配为锯操作人员的工人比被分配为螺柱安装人员的工人有统计学意义上的更高的噪音暴露（P = 0.037）。对全天暴露进行了八度频带分析，结果表明，高频率的高噪声暴露呈上升趋势。总体而言，在本研究涉及的所有钢螺柱框架工人中，所有工人的噪音剂量都低于OSHA PEL（范围5.8%至61.4%），除了2名工人（n = 35）外，所有工人的噪音剂量都高于NIOSH REL（范围63.9%至823.2%），表明暴露于基于更多保护性REL的危险噪音水平。

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来源期刊

Annals Of Work Exposures and Health Medicine-Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

19.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： About the Journal Annals of Work Exposures and Health is dedicated to presenting advances in exposure science supporting the recognition, quantification, and control of exposures at work, and epidemiological studies on their effects on human health and well-being. A key question we apply to submission is, "Is this paper going to help readers better understand, quantify, and control conditions at work that adversely or positively affect health and well-being?" We are interested in high quality scientific research addressing: the quantification of work exposures, including chemical, biological, physical, biomechanical, and psychosocial, and the elements of work organization giving rise to such exposures; the relationship between these exposures and the acute and chronic health consequences for those exposed and their families and communities; populations at special risk of work-related exposures including women, under-represented minorities, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups such as temporary, contingent and informal sector workers; the effectiveness of interventions addressing exposure and risk including production technologies, work process engineering, and personal protective systems; policies and management approaches to reduce risk and improve health and well-being among workers, their families or communities; methodologies and mechanisms that underlie the quantification and/or control of exposure and risk. There is heavy pressure on space in the journal, and the above interests mean that we do not usually publish papers that simply report local conditions without generalizable results. We are also unlikely to publish reports on human health and well-being without information on the work exposure characteristics giving rise to the effects. We particularly welcome contributions from scientists based in, or addressing conditions in, developing economies that fall within the above scope.