Vulnerability and risk assessment of noise pollution on worker’s health in different industries of Khulna city, Bangladesh
Debatosh Banik Partha*, Md. Saiful Islam
HIGHLIGHTS
- Measurement of noise levels in five industries of Khulna city was done.
- A comprehensive questionnaire survey was done among the workers of the industries.
- Vulnerability analysis of the industries in tackling noise hazard was done based on questionnaire.
- Various noise impacts and risks on worker’s health and their causes with effects were investigated subtly.
- Control measures of industrial noise were prescribed.
ABSTRACT
Industries in Bangladesh produce a huge amount of noise that affects the quality of the industrial environment as well as the worker’s health. Previous studies show that, in USA, 11 million workers are exposed to occupational noise. In Sweden, 9% of total workers experience long term foul noise environment as well. Main objectives of this study are to analyze the vulnerability of industrial systems in tackling noise hazard and to establish a comprehensive scenario of health risk based on the jeopardy and weakness of worker’s health prone to this overt and uncontrolled industrial hazard. Different industries of Khulna city, Bangladesh under five categories e.g. electrical equipment industry, cement factory, metal & steel industry, jute mill and electricity production industry were chosen based on their location and industrial scale. Vulnerability and health risk were assessed using PRA tool and questionnaire survey approach. Occupational safety of workers was checked and the causes of high noise production were justified. The maximum vulnerability of noise hazard was 17.42 for power generation industry followed by 15.82, 15, 14.41, 12.24 of heavy metal, jute, cement, and electrical equipment industry, respectively. The most vulnerable industry thus found in this study was the power generation industry. The questionnaire survey for determining vulnerability also unlocked the health issues of workers. It shows that among 75 workers in total, 68% of them had a serious headache, 50.67% were annoyed, 33.33% workers feel dizziness and 29.33% were insomniacs being a victim of this direct industrial noise exposure. Based on vulnerability analysis and health risk assessment, this study demonstrates the cause and detrimental effects of noise pollution to alert the exposed community and to ensure safety of workers in a noise-free environment of the workplace.
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To cite this article: Partha DB, Islam MS. Vulnerability and risk assessment of noise pollution on worker’s health in different industries of Khulna city, Bangladesh. Journal of Advanced Civil Engineering Practice and Research 2019;9:3-12.
To link this article: http://ababilpub.com/download/jacepr9-2/