Neitzel Richard L, Andersson Marianne, Andersson Eva
1.Department of Environmental Health Sciences and University of Michigan Risk Science Center, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, 6611 SPH I, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA;
2.Sahlgrenska Academy, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Ann Occup Hyg. 2016 Jun;60(5):581-96. doi: 10.1093/annhyg/mew001. Epub 2016 Feb 17.
Noise exposures are associated with a host of adverse health effects, yet these exposures remain inadequately characterized in many industrial operations, including paper mills. We assessed noise at four paper mills using three measures: (i) personal noise dosimetry, (ii) area noise measurements, and (iii) questionnaire items addressing several different aspects of perceived noise exposure.
We assessed exposures to noise characterized using the three measures and compared the relationships between them. We also estimated the validity of each of the three measures using a novel application of the Method of Triads, which does not appear to have been used previously in the occupational health literature.
We collected 209 valid dosimetry measurements and collected perceived noise exposure survey items from 170 workers, along with 100 area measurements. We identified exposures in excess of 85 dBA at all mills. The dosimetry and area noise measurements assigned to individual subjects generally showed good agreement, but for some operations within mill, large differences between the two measures were observed, and a substantial fraction of paired measures differed by >5 dB. Perceived noise exposures varied greatly between the mills, particularly for an item related to difficulty speaking in noise. One perceived noise exposure item related to difficulty hearing due to noise showed strong and significant correlations with both dosimetry and area measurements. The Method of Triads analysis showed that dosimetry measures had the highest estimated validity coefficient (0.70), and that the best performing perceived exposure measure had validity that exceeded that of area measurements (0.48 versus 0.40, respectively).
Workers in Swedish pulp mills have the potential for exposures to high levels of noise. Our results suggest that, while dosimetry remains the preferred approach to exposure assessment, perceived noise exposures can be used to evaluate potential exposures to noise in epidemiological studies.
噪声暴露与一系列不良健康影响相关，但在许多工业操作中，包括造纸厂，这些暴露的特征仍未得到充分描述。我们使用三种方法评估了四家造纸厂的噪声：（i）个人噪声剂量测定，（ii）区域噪声测量，以及（iii）涉及感知噪声暴露几个不同方面的问卷调查项目。
我们评估了使用这三种方法表征的噪声暴露，并比较了它们之间的关系。我们还使用三联法的一种新应用估计了这三种方法各自的有效性，三联法在职业健康文献中似乎以前未被使用过。
我们收集了209份有效的剂量测定测量数据，从170名工人那里收集了感知噪声暴露调查项目，以及100次区域测量数据。我们在所有工厂都发现了超过85分贝（A）的暴露。分配给个体受试者的剂量测定和区域噪声测量总体上显示出良好的一致性，但对于工厂内的某些操作，观察到这两种测量方法之间存在很大差异，并且相当一部分配对测量相差超过5分贝。各工厂之间的感知噪声暴露差异很大，特别是与在噪声中说话困难相关的项目。一个与噪声导致听力困难相关的感知噪声暴露项目与剂量测定和区域测量都显示出强烈且显著的相关性。三联法分析表明，剂量测定方法的估计有效性系数最高（0.70），表现最佳的感知暴露测量方法的有效性超过了区域测量方法（分别为0.48和0.40）。
瑞典纸浆厂的工人有可能暴露于高水平噪声。我们的结果表明，虽然剂量测定仍然是暴露评估的首选方法，但感知噪声暴露可用于在流行病学研究中评估潜在的噪声暴露。
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