Evaluation of Occupational and Environmental Noise Pollution Exposure Levels in Selected Sawmills, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract

: This study presents the assessment and evaluation of noise levels in some selected sawmills within Warri and its environs. An MS6701 Digital Sound Level Meter of range 30-130 dBA, and a Geographical Positioning System (GPS) were employed to measure the noise level of strategic Sawmills locations and ascertain the location coordinates within the study area during the time of measurements. According to the analysis of the empirical results, the noise levels of the different sawmills ranged from 92.02 dB(A) to 96.5 dB (A) when operations were conducted. This is higher than the FMEnv and OSHA recommended standard of 90 dBA for eight hours per day (FEPA, 1991; OSHA, 1993), and lower than the recommended level when operations were not conducted, which ranged from 62.31dBA to 68.91dBA. Microsoft Excel was used to validate the results that were obtained. For both in-use and non-used equipment, the Noise Climate (NC), Traffic Noise Index (TNI), and n-percent exceedance level (L10 and L90) values were computed. All of the average values from these computed noise level parameters were over the 55 dBA threshold that the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribe for residential areas