Health impacts of construction noise on workers: A quantitative assessment model based on exposure measurement

Abstract To provide industry practitioners with a better understanding of the health impacts of occupational noise generated during construction activities, this paper applies measurement schemes to collect noise exposure samples of workers employed in 10 different trades and develops a health damage assessment model to quantify noise exposure level into hearing impairments suffered by field workers in units of “USD”. On-site measurements were conducted at two representative ongoing building projects in Beijing during 2013, and 270 valid noise exposure samples covering 10 trades were acquired. With these data, the occupational noise exposure indicator LEX, 8h was calculated and compared with the threshold limit of 85 dBA stipulated by China's authority. Then, a comparative analysis of noise exposure levels was conducted between two projects and among trades. Furthermore, a health damage assessment model was established to evaluate the real health impacts of construction noise in one of the sampling projects. The results demonstrate that workers in the construction industry suffer severe occupational health damage as a result of construction noise in China. Specifically, 94% of the total health damage occurred during the superstructure construction stage. Roofbolter operators, air duct workers, formwork fixers and concreters suffered from substantial harm in terms of per capita daily damage values. The occupational noise exposure measurement and health damage assessment based on practical project samples indicate that the proposed sampling schemes perform well and that the established health assessment model can effectively quantify health damage suffered by workers due to construction noise, thereby demonstrating its potential as a tool for establishing health subsidy standards for various trades.