A study on noise exposure and its effects on employees’ health, safety and productivity in plastic based industry

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a study on noise exposure and its effects on employees’ health, safety and influence to their productivity performance. In this study noise levels were measured at several work locations to determine whether there noise problems or not. Employees may suffer permanent hearing loss due over exposure to high noise level. Therefore, noise level measurement is an important activity at workplace to preserve employees hearing capability and implementing noise control procedure. Sound level meter and noise dosimeter were used for measuring noise level and noise dose at the designated work locations. The study was carried out at three different plants in plastics based industry. The results of the study shows all the work location in the three plants are within the allowable levels according to the First Schedule of Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulations 1989, which falls under the Factories and Machinery Act. 5. In essence, the authors could conclude that workers working in plastic based industry in Malaysia are not over exposed to high noise levels beyond the permissible limits as required by law.