OCCUPATIONAL NOISE ASSESSMENT OF CARRIAGE FACTORY ISLAMABAD

Abstract

Environment and its relation with humanity is one of the most important issues of the present time. The damage being done to human either intentionally or unintentionally by own human activities is of great concern to each one of us. With rapid increase in urbanization and industrialization, noise has been on the increase. In industries, it is one of the undesired and unavoidable by-products of modern mechanized operations and a potentially serious health problem. Today, occupational noise has been recognized as one of the most prevalent workplace hazards and as per WHO, over 120 million people worldwide have noise induced hearing loss. Besides developing hearing problems, persons exposed to it may experience fatigue, insomnia, irritability, frequent accidents, increased heart rate and undesirable behavior. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of occupational noise and its effects in one of the largest public sector industrial units of Pakistan, Carriage Factory-Islamabad. To achieve the objectives, following methodology was adopted: a. Walk round the factory area to pinpoint the exact locations under exposure of high noise. b. Noise level measurements at pre-identified locations. c. Survey through questionnaire/personal interviews. d. Survey of patients' record at ENT Department, Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi. e. Audiometric tests of 85 workers exposed to high level noise. The conventional electro-mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic machinery propagates high level noise in Carriage Factory that is exceeding much beyond the maximum permissible limit, i.e.85 dBA (ISO standards). A very high noise exposure ranging 120-123 dBA was recorded in the Fabrication shop and Forge shop where workers were directly exposed to it without wearing any protection gear. Audiometric tests of 85 workers exposed to different levels of noise showed presence of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) from mild to profound in 70 cases (age group between 41 to 50 years) whereas hearing of 35 workers (age group between 46 to 50 years)

were found severely impaired. The data gathered through Questionnaire and personal interviews showed that 88 percent of the workers have communication problems, 86 percent have lack of concentration and 63 percent reported irritation/annoyance problems. However, only 27 percent of workers were visited the hospital for the hearing test. The above findings of this study highlighted the magnitude of the problem, the necessity of the application of preventive measures in the factory as recommended and the need for more studies in this specific field.