Noise Exposure, Awareness, Practice and Noise Annoyance Among Steel Workers in United Arab Emirates

This cross-sectional study investigated noise annoyance, awareness and practice among the workers in two steel factories in UAE. The study involving 468 steel workers randomly selected. Noise exposure was estimated using the integrated sound level meter. A structured interview questionnaire was used to assess the noise annoyance, awareness and practice of workers towards the noise. The results showed that about 89 % of the workers exposed to a daily Leq above the permissible level which is 85 dB (A) and 45 % of them had never used any hearing protection devices. About 58% of the workers experienced a moderate or high degree of noise annoyance. Only 4.1% and 1.9 % of the workers aware about the health effects of noise and the methods of prevention respectively and awareness was positively associated with noise exposure. Few workers (13.2%) used the hearing protection devices during the working time. Thus workers within both factories are at high risk of developing noise annoyance, and other related ailments due to excessive occupational exposure to noise, and non-use of hearing protection devices. There was an association between noise annoyance and noise level and any one of them could influence the workers to use the hearing protection devices. There is a need to have a hearing conservation program in both factories one of its main components is education to raise the awareness of workers about noise hazards and methods of prevention. Finally, the factor noise annoyance should be incorporated into all future studies on the use of hearing protection devices.