Task-Based Assessment of Occupational Vibration and Noise Exposures in Forestry Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Neitzel R ; Yost M
• Description:
  Forty-two noise exposures and 164 whole-body (WBV) and hand-arm (HAV) vibration exposures were collected from 43 forestry workers in six trades employed by two forestry companies. Data were collected on 10 days over 8 weeks during various felling, logging, and log handling operations. Up to 5 volunteers were monitored for noise and vibration daily using datalogging noise dosimeters, which provided daily time-weighted averages (TWAs) and 1-min averages; and a precision sound level meter equipped to measure human vibration, which provided triaxial HAV and WBV event-weighted averages (AEQS). Workers completed a short questionnaire throughout the workday detailing the timing and number of tasks performed and equipment used. Substantial overexposures to noise and vibration were seen; for example, 60% of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) TWAs and 83% of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) noise TWAs exceeded 85 dBA, 33-53% of the axis-specific HAV AEQS exceeded the 8-hour American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' HAV threshold limit value, and 34% of all summary weighted WBV AEQS exceeded the Commission of the European Communities' 8-hour exposure limit. The mean for 99 WBV summary weighted AEQ was 3.53 +/- 7.12 m/sec2, whereas the mean for 65 HAV summary weighted AEQ was 5.45 +/- 5.25 m/sec2. The mean OSHA TWA was 86.1 +/- 6.2 dBA, whereas the mean NIOSH TWA was 90.2 +/- 5.1 dBA. The task and tool with the highest exposure levels were unbelling chokers on landings and chain saws (noise), log processing and frontend loaders (WBV), and notching stumps and chain saws (HAV). An internal validation substudy indicated excellent agreement between worker-reported and researcher-documented tasks and tools [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Monitoring Forestry Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Protective Clothing Safety Vibration
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Exposure Assessment Equipment-operators Exposure-assessment Forestry Forestry-workers Hand-arm Vibration Hand-protection Noise-analysis Noise-control Noise-exposure Noise-levels Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Occupational Noise Vibration-exposure Vibration-pickups Whole-body Vibration

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• ISSN:
  0002-8894
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20032277
• Citation:
  Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 2002 Sep/Oct; 63(5):617-627
• Contact Point Address:
  Department of Environmental Health, Box 354695, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-4695
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• NORA Priority Area:
  Neurotoxic Disorders ; Neurotoxic Effects
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19960930
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal
• End Date:
  20020929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6f76d86a69f426d43235ef485d3aee8d6c7bf3119b30e7ac60043e707a46e37bb36447d56b374ab2dc6c03c956f4a0651a542601b0a138723fa33ca396b2ccf5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/186305/cdc_186305_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 370.07 KB ]