Current Importance of the Assessment of the Occupational Noise Exposure in a Quality Approach

Abstract

According to the National Statistical data, the work-related hearing impairment shows a decaying trend, remaining the second health impairment cause. The preliminary results of data collection on a number of industrial activities in different NACE sectors brought into evidence that a large number of Safety Documents provides only general information on the compliance of the exposure levels with the limit values, without any technical detail on the measurement campaign set up and the measures statistical representativeness. On the Author experience, operating within the research project “The General Safety Issues and Goals in Turin Universities” –TGSIGTU, an effective assessment of the workers’ exposure conditions results a demanding task, whichever the pollutant, especially in universities where advanced research activities and routine operations (often interfering) are performed in the same workplace. This scenario can be compared to the small and medium enterprises working conditions, where a current work reorganization, for an improved adaptability to the production requirements, increases the complexity of the systems. Starting from a discussion on the critical aspects characterizing the definition of workers’ exposure condition, the paper deals with an Occupational Noise Risk Assessment in a Quality approach consistent with the general requirement of OS&H regulations and specific UNI EN ISO 9612:2011 standard providing technical suggestions for the determination of the occupational noise exposure. This approach has been well-tested both in different NACE sectors and in universities supported by approx. 150 noise data collected in different scenarios.