Study of the acoustic features and exposures of some typical construction noise sources in India

Occupational noise research and occupational noise standards to date are limited to continuous, non-fluctuating broadband noise and uniform exposure. However, in many occupational environments, such as the construction sites, the workers may be exposed to continuous or intermittent noise of varied spectral and temporal patterns, and their exposure may not be continuous or uniform. These differences in sound signals and sound exposures may have different effect on humans. This paper studies the sound signals of various sources in construction sites of the institute campus through in-situ measurements. The key acoustic features and the spectral content of the sound signals are analyzed. The findings show that construction workers in India are exposed to construction noise with widely varying spectral content. A modified permissible upper limit of construction noise is developed for the presented case study and it is found that five out of eight studied construction sources violate the permissible limit and pose a noise hazard to the construction workers. The study suggests the need for updating occupational noise guidelines based on the noise types and exposure types; and imposing stricter measures for protecting the workers against the construction noise.