Kovalchik Peter G, Matetic Rudy J, Smith Adam K, Bealko Susan B
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, USA.
J Safety Res. 2008;39(2):251-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.029. Epub 2008 Mar 18.
Overexposure to noise remains a widespread and serious health hazard in the U.S. service providing and goods producing industries. Excessive noise can lead to poor verbal communication and reduce the ability to recognize warning signals. These dangerous work conditions can also cause stress and fatigue. Occupational hearing loss is a permanent illness, with no recovery currently possible.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recognized Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) as one of the ten leading work-related diseases and injuries in the United States, and has emphasized its importance as one of the critical areas expressed in the National Occupational Research Agenda.
One of the most serious noise problems in the goods producing industries is the operation of continuous mining machines during underground coal mining. In order to minimize occupational hearing loss, noise hazards are "designed out" early in the design process. NIOSH is leading a national initiative called Prevention through Design (PTD) to promote this concept. This paper describes the quiet-by-design approach of a noise control that reduced noise exposures of continuous mining machine operators by 3dB(A) using the four functional areas of PTD, namely Practice, Policy, Research, and Education.
在美国的服务提供和商品生产行业中，过度暴露于噪音仍然是一个普遍且严重的健康危害。过度的噪音会导致言语交流不畅，并降低识别警告信号的能力。这些危险的工作条件还会导致压力和疲劳。职业性听力损失是一种永久性疾病，目前无法恢复。
美国国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）已将噪声性听力损失（NIHL）认定为美国十大主要职业相关疾病和伤害之一，并强调其作为《国家职业研究议程》中所表达的关键领域之一的重要性。
商品生产行业中最严重的噪音问题之一是地下煤矿开采期间连续采矿机器的运行。为了将职业性听力损失降至最低，在设计过程的早期就“消除”噪音危害。NIOSH正在领导一项名为“通过设计预防”（PTD）的全国性倡议，以推广这一概念。本文描述了一种噪声控制的设计静音方法，该方法利用PTD的四个功能领域，即实践、政策、研究和教育，将连续采矿机器操作员的噪音暴露降低了3dB(A)。
