Impact of Occupational Noise in Organized Transportation Sector Human Resources

Abstract

Occupational noise exposure is a major area of concern all over the world including our own country. Different activities in transportation sector generate a lot of noise. The working condition in organized sector is generally expected to be better. In this backdrop a study has been conducted to assess the impact of occupational noise, if any, on hearing status of human resources engaged in organized railway transportation sector. Individuals working for at least a period of 9 years were approached. 49 consenting male human resources, aged in the range 31-40 years, working in different workshops constituted the high noise exposed group and 26 male employees of comparable age working in administrative offices constituted the low noise exposed group. Sound pressure level in different work-zones was measured. Results indicated that in high noise exposed group individuals 77.6 % had hearing loss at speech frequency whereas it was only 30.8 % in low noise exposed group. Hearing impairment was also calculated, for both high and low noise exposed groups, taking into consideration audiometric data till 4 kHz and 6 kHz for both the ears. From the present study, it may be concluded that the hearing ability of the human resources engaged in the work in relatively high noise zone is getting significantly impaired compared to their low noise exposed group counterparts.