Objective and Subjective Examinations Related to the Noise Factor in Noisy Plants and Analyses of the Noise Regulation

Abstract

As a big pollution factor, noise influences the human health and its life quality in many countries occupied intensively with industrialization and urbanization more than ever. Most people have to live in noisy environments at different stages of their life. However, the workers in different noisy industrial plants are the most affected group of people. It is accepted in the whole world that the direct or indirect effects of noise are of various kinds and we are seriously affected physiologically and psychologically. In some situations, noise causes complaints among the workers and it decreases their working performance in the working area. This study aims at the examination of the workers' evaluations related to noise exposure, who are working in different noisy environments from the point of view of noise levels and noise characteristics. For subjective and objective evaluations also, noise measurements in various industrial plants with different noise levels have been made and a survey through the workers has been taken. Data from the measurements and the survey study are evaluated together for researching the relations between the workers' evaluations related to noise and the measured noise levels. Using the same data, the relations between the education status of the workers, their working periods in noisy environments and workers' evaluations related to noise exposure are investigated. Moreover, in order to evaluate the workers' situations related to regulations, an examination of the Noise Regulation has been made.