INTRODUCTION

According to Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), sound
and noise doesn’t shared the same definition since sound is something that we hear while
noise can be understand as unwanted sound. Sound can be produced by vibrating objects
and travel in various medium as waves while reaching the listener’s ears. The difference
between sound and noise can be seen within the listener and under certain conditions. For
example, Metallica music can be pleasure to someone but in the same time it can be
hazardous to a person’s hearing when it is too loud and causing damage to eardrum.

It is common to have noise as occupational health hazard mostly in heavy industrial

and manufacturing company because the consequence is quite severe as the hearing loss
can be permanent to the workers. Furthermore, places like office, schools and computer room
might encountered with stress release, speech communication and annoyance talk as hazard.

To prevent the consequences of noise hazard, noise levels at workplace strictly must
be reduced to acceptable levels. There are several method known generally which is for
example modifications in terms of engineering towards the noise source itself or using device
like ear muffs. Hence, simple investigation has been made by our group in order to calculate
the noise hazard in specific area which is cooling tower located at polymer lab.

Regarding this practical 4, noise exposure, it contains two parts where the first one is
noise survey monitoring by using Sound Level Meter (SLM) and measuring tape. SLM
indicates the sound level pressure in decibels (dB). The works is done by measuring the
distance of 4 meters from the noise source. And the reading is taken for every 15 minutes at
three different place but maintaining the distance. The second part consist of determination of
the level noise experience by a person by measuring Time Weighting Average (TWA) and
evaluate effectiveness of existing noise control. The instruments in used is dosimeter. The
procedure is quite similar to the first part but different in terms of distance. The distance is two
meter from the source while the dosimeter is stick to a person. The data is collected for every
15 minutes at three different places.
 DISCUSSION

Noise can be in forms of hazard to human beings since loud and unpleasant sounds
can damage our hearing depends on the level of the noise. Hence, it does affect physically or
mentally to living beings. In the first part of practical 4, the noise survey monitoring is done at
cooling tower near the polymer lab. The cooling tower acts as the noise source since it produce
loud sounds when the machine is switched on. By using the sound level meter (SLM), our
group calculated the pressure of the sound waves travelling through medium air from the
source itself. The SLM was measured in the unit of decibels (dB). The solely purpose of this
practical is to check whether the sounds produce is hazardous to community or vice versa.

The purpose of conducting the first part was to gain an understanding of how the sound
pressure level (SPL) generated by a noisy machine varies as one move away from it. To
determine SPL, SLM was used in term of measurement. SLM most likely act like principle of
our ears where it receive and recognize sound pressures but at low response. The SPL then
were measured at distance of 4 meter from the noise source and the data is collected for three
times with constant distance but different location for every 15 minutes.

According to the data collected, for the first meter, the noise average was 84.57, for
two meter was 83.8 and the noise average for the four meter was 69.8. There were not much
difference for the three points measured. The first point valued at 70.9, the second point was
69.3 and the third point was 69.1. This can be explained as our location does not have much
distraction compared to other places such as laboratory. Hence the reading taken is quite
reasonable for conducting a practical. The intensity was calculated as well using formulas
which shown in appendix. For the first meter, the intensity was 6.73 watt/m2, two meter was
valued at 1.67 watt/m2 and lastly, the four meter was 0.35 watt/m2. To conclude, we can come
to understanding of theory of the longer the distance, the less the intensity, the less hazardous
of noise affect us when we are far from a loud and unpleasant noise or sounds.

REFERENCE

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health. (2019). Noise - Measurement of Workplace Noise.
Available at https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/noise_measurement.html
Retrieved on 14 May 2019.