MEASUREMENTS OF NOISE LEVEL IN A PAINT FACTORY: A CASE STUDY

PAOLO BISIO^1,2, FEDERICA SAVINO³, DOMENICO TAFURI⁴, MARIA QUARTO⁵

¹Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy- ²ASL - AL- Prevention and Protection Office - ³School of Medical Physics, University of Naples Federico II, Italy - 4Department of Sport Sciences and Wellness, Parthenope University, Naples, Italy - ⁵Advanced Biomedical Science Department, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Introduction: Hearing loss, arterial hypertension, stress, sleep disturbance, and impaired cognitive performance.

Material and methods: The occupational noise exposure study was carried out at paint factory after the acoustic remedia- tion action. The equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level was done according to Italian legislation on occupational safety and UNI 9432:2011 standard; The daily cumulative noise exposure dose was evaluated for each group of workers with dif- ferent work tasks.

Results: The equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels were lower than 85 dB that is the which is the value above which the Italian law requires the use of personal protection device. The results obtained show that all the workers grouped for work tasks fall into the classes of non-significant (ICA =0) or low (ICA =1) noise risk.

Conclusion: The study showed that the implementation of acoustic reclamation, if well designed, can significantly reduce worker exposure to noise.