Affiliations: Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Mao-Jiun J. Wang, Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 3 5742655; Fax: +886 3 5722204; E-mail:mjwang@ie.nthu.edu.tw
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Workplace noise exposure gains growing attention in
high tech industry. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the noise effect on
physiological and subjective responses in semiconductor manufacturing clean
room environment. METHODS: Twenty subjects including 10 males and
10 females completed all phases of the experiment. Each subject was asked to
participate in four treatment combinations of two noise intensities [65
dB(A) and 80 dB(A)] × two frequency levels [high and low]. For each
treatment condition, the subject was exposed to the specified noise
condition in a sound proof cabin for one hour. The physiological measures
included blood pressure and heart rate. The subjective measures included
noise sensitivity, fatigue and annoyance. RESULTS: The ANOVA
results indicate that long-time noise exposure caused significant increase
in blood pressure (p< 0.001). Furthermore, the noise intensity by time
interaction effect was found to be significant on annoyance and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that prolonged exposure to noise
intensity at 80 dB(A) would result in a significant increase in
physiological cost and subjective discomfort feeling. Thus, some
countermeasures should be taken to reduce noise exposure and to promote
health, and quality of working life.
