Hygiene Risks
3. Physical Pollutants
These are also noxious factors that may be present in the workplace and whose existence may afford an occupational disease hazard that can lead to the incapacity to carry out the work itself.
The most common among these in the work carried out by the ISASTUR Group are:
- Noise.
- Lighting.
- Non-ionizing radiation.
- Vibrations.
3.1. Noise
Noise affords a permanent hazard for the health and safety of workers. The noise in industrial environments is usually load as well as being bothersome and is one if the most important causes of injuries.
Exposure to noise has different associated occupational diseases that manifest in the following ways:
- A decrease in hearing capacity (hypoacusis), resulting form exposure to high levels of noise for long periods of time.
- Total loss of the capacity to hear caused by impact or explosion noises.
Spanish Royal Decree 286/2006, concerning the protection of the health and safety of workers against hazards related to exposure to noise at work, establishes the obligations that employers and workers must comply with to avoid injuries produced by noise.
The following chart provides a summary of these obligations:
| Exposure (dBA) |
INFORM TRAIN | MEDICAL CHECK | USE OF Protection | MEasurements | SIGNS |
| Exposure > 87 (Peak>140dBC) |
Yes | Every 3 years | Obligatorio | Every year | Yes |
| Exposure > 85 (Peak>137dBC) | Yes | Every 3 years | Obligatorio | Every year | Yes |
| Exposure > 80 (Peak>135dBC) | Yes | Every 5 years | Aconsejable* | Every 3 years | Yes |
| * If the worker suffers hearing loss, the Health Surveillance Service indicates that hearing protections must be used in noisy environments, i.e. above 80dBA. | |||||
To assess the limit value of exposure to noise (87 dBA, 140dBC peak), the attenuation obtained with the hearing protectors employed are to be taken into consideration. To determine the upper/lower values that give rise to action on the part of the employer, however, the attenuations obtained by the use of hearing protections shall not be taken into consideration.
3.1.1. Protecting workers against noise
To reduce the noise in the workplace, companies can adopt measures of a technical or organisational nature.
- Technical measures are aimed at proper design of machinery, or insulating or enclosing noisy machinery.
- Workers should use personal protection whenever it is not possible to apply the aforementioned measures, the use of such equipment being mandatory for all workers above 85 dBA (peak > 137 dBC), or when the Health Surveillance Service stipulates so for each particular worker.
- Organisational measures aim to reduce the level of exposure of workers to noise, reducing the time they are exposed to said noise.
- Action should be taken regarding the organisation of work by changing, if necessary, shifts or rotating personnel exposed to noise.
- It should be realized that reducing the level of noise is much more effective when acting on the source of noise than using hearing protectors.
- Periodic hearing tests must be carried out on workers exposed to noise in accordance with Spanish Royal Decree 286/2006.
