Pump Down The Volume: Noise Pollution Is Serious Stuff.
While it’s impossible to make a factory blasting at full output TV studio quiet, steps can be taken to reduce noise as much as possible – which translates into high productivity and fewer worker’s comp claims for hearing loss.
– By Isaac Rudik
In a world where workplace and outside noise can seem like an unyielding din, it is easy to take hearing for granted. Moreover, symptoms of hearing loss can be overlooked since they appear gradually and are seldom associated with pain. As a result, increasing deafness remains unnoticed often for years until it’s too late.
In fact, among all occupational hazards, noise is the biggest cause of permanent disability claims settled by Ontario’s Worker’s Compensation Board. According to WSIB, hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels resulted in roughly $100-million in claims paid out over a recent 10 year period.
As a result, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour introduced strict limits for workplace noise exposure. Among other things, the government reduced the allowable exposure time to noise by workers in half. The Environment Ministry deals with preventing excessive noise in Ontario, and sounds produced by human activity is controlled by the laws in the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (EPA), which holds that noise is a contaminant with adverse effects on workers.
Why? Because researchers proved that an individual exposed to 85dba for eight hours a day, week after week, will suffer hearing loss. The louder the sound, the less time it takes. Thus, the noisier the workplace, the fewer exposures and time it takes to produce significant – and, for employers, costly – hearing loss.
Achieving Results
While it’s impossible to make a factory blasting at full output TV studio quiet, steps can be taken to reduce noise as much as possible.
Executives at an Ontario tool-and-die maker knew they were in a noisy business; it’s in the nature of what the company does. But they were intent on reducing noise levels as much as possible. For one thing, they didn’t want to be socked with expensive worker’s comp claims if employees started suffering hearing problems; for another, they recognised that high noise levels meant lower productivity.
The company developed a three-prong strategy: Remove, Reduce, and Rest.
The company removed as much noise as possible from its plant and then reduced the amount of noise entering the workplace. Following exposure to loud noise, auditory rest is crucial to allow recovery time for the hearing system.
The plant formed a management-worker committee and following guidelines created by the Canadian Hearing Society.
First, noise was reduced at the machinery sound source, either by isolating machines or installing insulating materials to muffle sound and vibration.
Next, within the plant sound barriers made of acoustic materials were installed along with adding machine enclosures, equipment mounts, exhaust silencers and mufflers. Where possible, sound-absorbing coatings were applied to machines and plastic gears substituted for metal ones. Each helped reduce noise.
Finally, schedules were re-configured to allow workers to rotate to less noisy areas during their shift. They were also provided personal hearing protection and instructed on its proper use.
Primary Solution
The company used a variety of SONEX Panels which provided it with a range of acoustic solutions that met both functional and aesthetic requirements. The panels are used in everything from industrial facilities to manufacturing plants, warehouses, schools and universities, churches, multi-purpose rooms, cafeterias, offices, retail stores, recording studios and many other locations requiring acoustical control.
SONEX panels were chosen for their adhesive-applied installation and are all made with Willtec® foam, which is fire rated Class 1. At the same time, SONEX Valueline Baffles helped improve communication, reducing echo and reverberation in large open areas such as the production plant and warehouse.
Although the company absorbed an up-front investment, it noticed improved productivity on the plant floor almost immediately. Moreover, it received a number of points towards its LEED certification as an all-around healthy and green workplace – which is paying off in employee retention.
Coupled with reducing the likelihood of joining a long line of companies facing worker comp claims for hearing loss, the company is delighted it pumped down the volume.
Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. (www.compliancesolutionscanada.com), Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.
E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Taking The LEED In Controlling Indoor Air Quality And Pollution
Taking The LEED In Controlling Indoor Air Quality And Pollution
A growing number of people work in “sick buildings” that cause problems for workers ranging from simple fatigue to complex respiratory illnesses.
- By Isaac Rudik
When judges and support staff working in the historic Alberta Court of Appeal building in Calgary began experiencing fatigue, respiratory illnesses, and eye, ear, and nose irritation, they wondered if the famous building in which they worked was causing their multiple health complaints.
So building managers brought in Professor Tang Lee, a University of Calgary specialist in sick buildings to conduct air sampling. He confirmed high levels of a toxic microbe growing as mould throughout the building, recommending the building be closed until the toxin could be removed.
It turned out that the court house was a veritable Petri dish of bacteria, thanks to an improperly installed air intake system. Not only were toxins alive and well and living in the building’s air conditioning, they took up residence and were multiplying in the furniture and carpets – even the court’s files and books. Making matters worse, when judges took files home with them, they inadvertently carried toxins to their residences, in some cases making family members ill.
In effect, the historic building was like a setting for an absurd horror movie: The Spores That Consumed Calgary.
Common Problem
In fact, the Appeals Court building problem is not an isolated, one-off incident. Indoor air pollution causes 14-times more deaths than outdoor air pollution according to the WHO, and Washington’s EPA reports indoor air pollution is one of five top environmental threats to human health.
It turns out that many commercial offices are highly toxic environments from the glues, paints, organic chemicals, adhesives and formaldehyde used during construction and finishing. These contribute to indoor air pollution through off-gassing that may continue years after new construction or renovations are completed.
The problem is both widespread and deadly: Statistics Canada reports that, in 2003, some 1.3- million people were diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities from working or living in what the media dubs “sick buildings.” Since most of us spend roughly 90% of our day indoors, indoor air quality is a serious health risk factor.
Healthy Buildings Increase Profits
Enter the Canada Green Building Council (CGBC). Although the acronym could be mistaken for an Eighties heavy metal band, CGBC actually manages LEED Canada for new construction and major renovations; LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building rating system.
Among other things it does, LEED sets an indoor environment quality including carbon dioxide monitoring, ventilation effectiveness, construction management, using low-emitting materials, indoor chemical and pollutant source control, system controls, thermal comfort, and using daylight
to supplant HVAC.
But beyond charts, graphs and reports, LEED has established the economic benefits of healthy buildings. Making general improvements is demonstrated to increase worker productivity of up to 6%. Productivity gains pay for the cost of building and air quality improvements in less than two years.
Fast Payback
Why such a fast payback?
Because the cost of indoor air quality sensors such as a readily available, multi-gas detector models that cost less than $2,500. They monitor everything from carbon monoxide and oxygen levels to hydrogen sulphide, combustibles and exotic, problem-causing gases such as nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen, hydrogen cyanide and chlorine dioxide.
Sick buildings not only produce sick workers, they rob profits from a company’s bottom line – and do so year after year. Yet there are effective, low-cost ways of monitoring an office, factory or warehouse to ensure it stays healthy. They are an easy way to prevent complicated problems.
Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. (www.compliancesolutionscanada.com), Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.
E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.
A growing number of people work in “sick buildings” that cause problems for workers ranging from simple fatigue to complex respiratory illnesses.
- By Isaac Rudik
When judges and support staff working in the historic Alberta Court of Appeal building in Calgary began experiencing fatigue, respiratory illnesses, and eye, ear, and nose irritation, they wondered if the famous building in which they worked was causing their multiple health complaints.
So building managers brought in Professor Tang Lee, a University of Calgary specialist in sick buildings to conduct air sampling. He confirmed high levels of a toxic microbe growing as mould throughout the building, recommending the building be closed until the toxin could be removed.
It turned out that the court house was a veritable Petri dish of bacteria, thanks to an improperly installed air intake system. Not only were toxins alive and well and living in the building’s air conditioning, they took up residence and were multiplying in the furniture and carpets – even the court’s files and books. Making matters worse, when judges took files home with them, they inadvertently carried toxins to their residences, in some cases making family members ill.
In effect, the historic building was like a setting for an absurd horror movie: The Spores That Consumed Calgary.
Common Problem
In fact, the Appeals Court building problem is not an isolated, one-off incident. Indoor air pollution causes 14-times more deaths than outdoor air pollution according to the WHO, and Washington’s EPA reports indoor air pollution is one of five top environmental threats to human health.
It turns out that many commercial offices are highly toxic environments from the glues, paints, organic chemicals, adhesives and formaldehyde used during construction and finishing. These contribute to indoor air pollution through off-gassing that may continue years after new construction or renovations are completed.
The problem is both widespread and deadly: Statistics Canada reports that, in 2003, some 1.3- million people were diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities from working or living in what the media dubs “sick buildings.” Since most of us spend roughly 90% of our day indoors, indoor air quality is a serious health risk factor.
Healthy Buildings Increase Profits
Enter the Canada Green Building Council (CGBC). Although the acronym could be mistaken for an Eighties heavy metal band, CGBC actually manages LEED Canada for new construction and major renovations; LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building rating system.
Among other things it does, LEED sets an indoor environment quality including carbon dioxide monitoring, ventilation effectiveness, construction management, using low-emitting materials, indoor chemical and pollutant source control, system controls, thermal comfort, and using daylight
to supplant HVAC.
But beyond charts, graphs and reports, LEED has established the economic benefits of healthy buildings. Making general improvements is demonstrated to increase worker productivity of up to 6%. Productivity gains pay for the cost of building and air quality improvements in less than two years.
Fast Payback
Why such a fast payback?
Because the cost of indoor air quality sensors such as a readily available, multi-gas detector models that cost less than $2,500. They monitor everything from carbon monoxide and oxygen levels to hydrogen sulphide, combustibles and exotic, problem-causing gases such as nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen, hydrogen cyanide and chlorine dioxide.
Sick buildings not only produce sick workers, they rob profits from a company’s bottom line – and do so year after year. Yet there are effective, low-cost ways of monitoring an office, factory or warehouse to ensure it stays healthy. They are an easy way to prevent complicated problems.
Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. (www.compliancesolutionscanada.com), Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.
E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.
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