Conducting noise surveys in today's mobile work environment

Print page

Overview:
The industrial environment has changed drastically in recent decades with an increased level of mechanization within the workplace. This has given rise to many changes to employees' work patterns and has added new challenges to conducting noise surveys. A production line employee once would stay in a single place for the duration of a working shift. This lack of mobility made monitoring the employee's noise exposure a simple affair, requiring only a traditional handheld sound level meter. However, with the advent in automated production lines, employees may now supervise several machines during a single shift, moving from one workstation to the next, all of which having different noise exposures.