Comparison of Sampling Strategies Used During a Machine Shop Noise Survey

Abstract In Appendix G to 29 CFR 1910.95 “Occupational Noise Exposure,” OSHA describes how to monitor employee noise exposures using both area sound level meters and personal noise dosimeters. Initial workplace noise evaluations are often done in the form of a walk-through survey using a sound level meter. This article describes a dynamic workplace where sound level meters and dosimeters were used simultaneously to compare several different approaches to evaluating employee noise exposures. The methods tested were extrapolation of individual exposures from area measurements (obtained from ‘typical’ walk-through surveys), prediction of exposures using source noise data (measured by sound level meter), and frequency of source use information (measured by a work measurement method). In this study, the noise evaluation methods tested were found to underrepresent sound levels consistently when compared to the dosimeter data—in this case, because the latter better integrates the contribution of intermittent sho...