Study and assessment of the low audible frequency noise exposure and its effect on occupational settings / Tarek Mohamed Elbasheer AbuAlella Hussein ; Supervised Adel Mohamed Badawy Shehap , Hany Amir Shawky

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Physics

Low frequency noise (LFN) is one of the most harmful factors occurring in human working and living environment. Low frequency noise components from 20 to {u2264}500 Hz are often the cause of employee complaints. Few countries have adopted a method for measurement and assessment of low frequency noise in occupational settings. There is no international standard to specify low frequency noise at work environment, so the new of our study is to put recommendation for Egyptian standard for low frequency noise. It is clear that noise from power stations is an actual problem for large cities, including Cairo. The noise from equipments of station could be a serious problem for station and for environmental area. The development of power stations in Cairo leads to appearing a wide range of gas turbines which are strong source of noise. Two measurement techniques using C-weighted along side and the A-weighted scale are explored. C-weighting is far more sensitive to detect low frequency sound. Spectrum analysis in the low frequency range is done in order to identify a significant tonal component. Field studies were supported by a questionnaire to determine annoyance rating mean value. Volunteers included in this study were 151 (mean age =36.52 yrs, SD=8.33) male working at the three electrical power stations. All were of normal hearing (<30HL dB), we omitted the volunteer that have any hearing higher hearing level. The (C-A) level difference is an appropriate metric for indicating a potential low frequency noise problem

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