Proposal for the Automatic Evaluation of Workers' Exposure to Acoustic Noise following Task-Based Approach

Accurate measurement of exposure to noise in the workplace is important for employee health prevention as well as cost implications for employers. Standard ISO 9612 employs an engineering methodology for estimating noise exposure levels including levels of uncertainty. In this procedure some aspects are left to the discretion of the operator. Beginning with preliminary studies on the determination of the measurement intervals for evaluating workers' exposure to noise, this paper proposes an innovative approach to estimating work conditions for bus drivers. Measurement results are analysed and compared to the estimations based on both the ISO 9612 and the continuous acquisition analysis showing the feasibility of the proposal for accurately measuring the exposure to acoustic noise in a typical work situation.