Traditionally, workplace noise has been a hazard linked to heavy industries such as ship-building and associated only with noise induced hearing loss (NIHL).
Noise not only makes a person deaf (at exposures of over 85 decibels (dB)), but it also acts as a causal factor for stress and raises systolic blood pressure.
Additionally, it can be a causal factor in work accidents, both by masking hazards and warning signals, and by impeding concentration.
Noise also acts synergistically with other hazards to increase the risk of harm to workers. In particular, noise and dangerous substances (e.g. some solvents) that have some tendencies towards ototoxicity may give rise to rapid ear damage.
Industrialnoise, and its unpleasantness, is associated with a lower level of job satisfaction.
There was no real evidence of a difference between noise exposed workers and their controls with respect to the changes in hearing level during the course of their follow-up one and two years after initial audiograms.
Dryter (1991) found that industrialnoise is deduced to cause about half as much overall increase in male population hearing levels as that caused by exposure to gun noise.
Industrialnoise pollution is an ever growing problem and its management is centred around many pieces of legislation, standards, guidance documents, etc. many of which frequently contradict each other.
BS 4142: 1990 "Rating IndustrialNoise Affecting Mixed Residential and Industrial Areas" is the most important guidance document here and is the one most frequently used by environmental health officers to determine the degree of nuisance from a factory.
Standards for leisure noise are not at all clear and, in many cases have codes of practice set-up by the industry body and, hence, have debatable objectivity.
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