RUÍDO INDUSTRIAL – MAPEAMENTO ACÚSTICO COMO MEDIDA DE CONTROLE E PREDIÇÃO DE NÍVEIS SONOROS OCUPACIONAIS

Abstract

Occupational Hearing Loss (OHL) continues to negatively affect the lives of many workers, as around 16% of the hearing loss reported globally in adulthood is a circumstance of occupational exposure. In eminence of such a risk, methods of assessing and controlling noise in the workplace need to be considered. Noise maps are tools that have been increasingly used in acoustic studies, because they surpass the traditional static measurements based on average values, by allowing a set of interconnected data, with wide visualization and better applicability for the sound characterization of larger spaces. Thus, noise maps about road, rail and air traffic, and other environmental noises, are increasingly seen in the scientific literature. However, its potential remains little explored in terms of noise from indoor spaces, especially regarding occupational noise, a theme to which noise mapping could bring a series of advantages. It is precisely this gap that the present research sought to explore, aiming at the complete characterization of indoor noise in an industrial headquarters. As a method to achieve this objective, a methodology was used in three stages: knowledge of the industry, its forms of production, work activities and the built physical environment; the elaboration of its geometric model and; use of Odeon ® version 11 Industrial software for the calculation of noise maps throughout the factory in diagnostic and predictive scenarios. The results evidenced by noise mapping made it possible to quantify the sound levels and reverberation time. Discernment of the areas of greatest risk was achieved, an approach that proved to be fundamental for planning the control scenario in order to provide health, safety and improve the quality of life at work.