Noise Annoyance at Different Times of the Working Day

Abstract

Recordings of noise exposure and annoyance were collected for a group of 148 individuals. The recordings represented three different types of working environments; control rooms (n=57), offices in industry (n=34) and offices in public administration (n=37). In the control rooms the noise was dominated by lower frequencies of a monotonous character, whereas the noise in the offices was more varying. Noise recordings and ratings of annoyance were made at the beginning, the middle and the end of five successive days. The noise exposure levels varied between 39 and 64 dB(A). The results of the study are discussed with respect to differences in the exposure time related changes of annoyance in low frequency and high frequency environments. The results indicate that the annoyance level is stable during a working day and thus, that it is not affected by exposure time. However, annoyance increased somewhat from the first to the fifth working day among the control room group workers, whereas a trend in the opposite direction was seen in the office group.