The Harmful Effects of Noise on Humans

In general, noise is considered a harmful factor for the body, especially for the auditory system, and unfortunately many countries do not attach much importance to this phenomenon. Noise is among the physical factors that are bothersome for most workers in production units. Many occupations exist in industry that expose a person to noise. This may ultimately lead to physiological disorders of the body, and the effects of noise on humans are as follows:

∴ Damage to the auditory system: If the noise in the workplace exceeds the permissible limit (85 decibels) and a person is exposed to it for a long time, it may, over time, cause ear damage and hearing loss. This hearing loss is one of the most important and most common effects of noise and arises depending on the type of work people do; especially since most workers do not observe safety and health guidelines in their workplace.

∴ Effect on the balance system: The effect of noise on the balance system causes dizziness, nausea, and difficulty in walking.

∴ Interference with conversation: In work environments, this is one of the means of communication, and if there is background noise, especially at frequencies near those of speech, it can disrupt verbal communication between people and cause mistakes as well as accidents.

Effect on the organ of vision: Exposure to noise disrupts the control of the eye's focusing and tracking of objects, and the intensity of the reaction to light is reduced.

∴ Social discomfort: Noise affects sleep and social and family relationships, especially when hearing loss has spread to the speech range. People who suffer permanent hearing loss tend to want to keep this condition hidden, so they participate less in social interactions.

∴ Side effects: Noise causes a reduction in work efficiency, an increase in the risk of danger in the workplace, etc.

∴ Neural effects: By affecting the digestive system, noise causes digestive disorders and even abdominal pain and excessive secretion of stomach acid, and aggravates the diseases related to it.

∴ Psychological effects: Studies have shown that people who are exposed to noise suffer more from psychological disorders, including agitation, irritability, etc.

∴ General physiological effects: Noise can cause nervous stimulation and increase the heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen consumption, and respiratory rate; these changes have an adverse effect on the functioning of the body's systems. These effects are very dangerous for those who have cardiovascular diseases as well as for pregnant women.

∴ The subjective effect of noise: The subjective effect of noise is not the same for everyone, whether in the workplace or in society, and different people are not equally affected by its psychological and neural effects. Therefore, a given sound may be tolerable for some people and bothersome for others.

∴ Prevention: Some of the measures that can be taken to prevent the progression of hearing loss and to reduce the level of noise in production units are as follows:

∴ Engineering control measures: These include reducing noise at the source of production, modifying some production processes, tightening the panels and parts of noisy machines, installing silencers in machines, and enclosing noisy machines.

∴ Administrative control measures: If engineering control measures are not feasible for these or other reasons, administrative control measures are used; these measures include reducing the duration of the worker's exposure to noisy machines, establishing rotating shifts, and preventing a worker from remaining for a long time in a noisy environment.

∴ Medical measures: These are: audiometry tests, which are performed to determine the extent of hearing loss in workers who work in a noisy environment, as well as examining the audiometry results obtained from periodic examinations carried out regularly at specified intervals, for example once every year.

∴ Protective measures: Using suitable protective ear devices (earmuffs, earplugs), which is the last resort for prevention.