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Jacques JOUHANEAU: Professor of Acoustics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers
INTRODUCTION
Of all the stresses to which man is exposed in his daily environment, noise is undoubtedly the most present, the most widespread and the most insidious. Suspected for several decades of being responsible for various physiological and physical disorders, noise has been the subject of numerous approaches and research aimed at understanding its modes of action and mechanisms. Despite this work, noise remains one of the most poorly understood nuisances, both in terms of its effects on the individual and its economic and social repercussions.
This lack of knowledge is based first and foremost on the difficulty of measuring the actual short-, medium- or long-term –– consequences of noise aggression on organisms that are likely to adapt and thus mask all or part of these effects. It is reinforced by the fact that noise has a large number of subjective components, and as such can be perceived in very different ways from one individual to another, with varying reactions giving rise to interpretations that are all too often contradictory or ambiguous.
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Effect of noise on humans
Noise definitions
Bibliography
Economic data
It's impossible to put a global figure on the cost of noise. All we can do is provide a few benchmarks for estimating the possible economic impact.
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Health
Estimates dating from 1978-1980 put the cost of noise-related problems at over 30 billion francs (around 4.5 billion euros):
11% of workplace accidents...
Regulations
Arrêté du 12 août 1975 Méthode de mesure des niveaux sonores en milieu de travail en vue de la protection de l'audition (JORF of October 12, 1975, page 10560)
Decree no. 63-405 of April 10, 1963 amending decree no. 46-2959 of December 31, 1946 (JORF of April 20, 1963, page 3693)
Decree no. 81-507 of May 4, 1981 revising and supplementing the tables of occupational diseases...
Standardization
- Évaluation de l'exposition au bruit en milieu professionnel et estimation du déficit auditif, induit par le bruit, de populations exposées (indice de classement : 31-013). - NF S31-013 - 04-85
- Acoustics – Determination of occupational noise exposure and estimation of noise-induced hearing damage. - ISO 1999:1990 - 01-90
- Acoustics – Environmental noise characterization and measurement – Application of standard...
Organizations
Center d'information et de documentation sur le bruit (CIDB) : http://www.bruit.fr
Service de Documentation de l'Institut national de recherche et de sécurité INRS : http://www.inrs.fr
International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre...
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