Industrial Noise Pollution and Its Impact on the Hearing Capacity of Workers: A Case Study of Gujranwala City, Pakistan

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the impacts of industrial noise pollution onhearing of workers in Gujranwala. Noise pollution levels were measured at fifty locations with the help of sound levelmeter, which was placed at a height above 1.2 meters from the ground. Two hundred workers were interviewed throughquestionnaire method. Different statistical tests correlation and chi-square were applied to analyze the noise pollutionlevel in Gujranwala city. Impacts of industrial noise pollution on hearing of workers were shown in different mapsusing interpolation and buffers. The present study concluded that noise pollution levels were exceeding the WHOpermissible limit of noise pollution at all sample locations. Workers of factories were suffering from annoyance,hypertension, irritation, interference with speech communication and sleep disturbance. Thus, it is necessary to possessa hearing discussion program in factories. One of its main parts is education to raise the consciousness of workers aboutnoise risks and techniques of prevention. Lastly, the issues of noise annoyance should be included in all future studieson the usage of hearing protection devices.

A Comprehensive Review of Noise Measurement, Standards, Assessment, Geospatial Mapping and Public Health

“…The noise assessment, which lasted 12 hours and was done in five separate industries in Khulna city of Bangladesh indicated that the jute and power-generating industries exceeded the 90 dB regulatory limit of CPCB and OSHA (Banik et al, 2018). A noise survey conducted at 50 industrial locations in Gujranwala city (Pakistan) revealed that the noise levels were above the WHO's standard limit (Maqsood et al, 2019). In another 24-hour noise monitoring study in two industrial zones of Pakistan reported noise at 102 dB, which was higher than the permissible limit of 75 dB (Farooqi et al, 2019).…”

“…By modeling, Maya & Sreedevi (2015) were able to get the effect of noise pollution among people and therefore reduce it. By establishing buffer zones that serve as a tool for proximity analysis, the GIS approach has been utilized to define the degree of noise pollution by Maqsood et al, (2019) while studying the impact industrial noise on the hearing capacity of workers. In an academic environment, a similar contour mapping of Kufa University (Kufa River Campus) was carried out using GIS tools, and the spatial fluctuation of noise level was investigated using the Spline interpolation approach (Hussein & Al-Sulttani, 2021).…”

“…According to a survey of 200 workers in an industrial area of Pakistan regarding the effect of noise pollution on their ability to hear, 66.36% of the workforce was exposed to very high noise levels. The serious physical and mental health issues that these factory workers were susceptible to include annoyance, hypertension, irritation, speech impediment, insomnia, depression, headaches, and even hearing loss (Maqsood et al, 2019). Another investigation, performed among 20 to 80-yearold textile loom labourers in a Pakistani industrial area, reported that all respondents suffered from health problems caused by noise.…”