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Occupational Noise Exposure of Construction Workers at Construction Sites in Malaysia

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Regional Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2016)

Abstract

Noise exposure is one of the hazards in construction site that could lead to accidents and also negative impacts on human health. However, most of the construction workers lack in awareness about the impacts of the noise emission to their health. The aim of this research is to investigate the occupational noise exposure levels among construction workers during working hours and then it was compared to the permissible exposure limit regulated by Factories and Machinery Regulation (Noise Exposure) 1989 (FMR). Dosimeter was used to measure the noise exposure level for 1 h work duration and 30 construction workers were involved in this research. The results showed that 33% of construction workers were exposed to high noise level more than 90 dB(A) due to noises emitted by the machineries in the construction sites. It shows that the construction site emits high noise level because majority of the working equipment are machineries. However, the construction workers do not apply the proper PPE when performing the works even though they know that noise is a general problem. Furthermore, continuous exposure to noise could lead to health problems if no safety measures are taken by the employer and construction workers themselves.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the respondents of the study and also the data collection team namely Nur Fadilah Binti Darmansah, Stephanie Stella Anak Dawi and Mohd Mursyid Bin Sarbayni for their greatest commitment to complete the study.

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Correspondence to Nur Muizzah Nawi .

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Nawi, N.M., Haron, Z., Jumali, S., Che Hasan, A. (2018). Occupational Noise Exposure of Construction Workers at Construction Sites in Malaysia. In: Yacob, N., Mohd Noor, N., Mohd Yunus, N., Lob Yussof, R., Zakaria, S. (eds) Regional Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2016) . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0074-5_50

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