Noise exposure among construction electricians

Data-logging noise dosimetry was used to assess the exposure levels of elec tricians working for a major electrical subcontractor in Washington State a t five sites using four types of construction methods. Subjects documented activities and work environment information throughout their work shift, re sulting in an activity/exposure record for each of the 174 full-shift sampl es collected over the 4-month duration of the study. Over 24% of the TWA sa mples exceeded 85 dBA; 5.2% exceeded the federal Occupational Safety and He alth Administration permissible exposure limit of 90 dBA. The National Inst itute for Occupational Safety and Health exposure metric, which specifies a 3-dB ER, was also utilized; using this metric, 67.8% of the samples exceed ed 85 dBA and 27% exceeded 90 dBA. Subjects were directly observed for a su bset of 4469 min during which more detailed activity and environmental info rmation was recorded. Linear and logistic regression models using this subs et were used to identify the determinants of average exposure, and exposure exceedences, respectively. These models demonstrated the importance of mul tiple variable modeling in interpreting exposure assessments, and the feasi bility and utility of modeling exposure exceedences using logistic regressi on. The results further showed that presumably quiet trades such as electri cian are at risk of exposure to potentially harmful noise exposures, and th at other workers' activities and the general environment contribute substan tially to that risk. These results indicate that noise control strategies w ill have to address the construction work environment as an integrated syst em.