Occupational noise exposure limits for developing countries

Occupational noise Is one of the major environmental problems in industrial plants. Therefore, in order to limit high level occupational noise, maximum permissible occupational noise exposure limit in the range of 90-85 dB(A) L-eq for 8h/day (40 h/week) have been allowed by the International Standards Organization (ISO), EEC and other developed countries. But in developing countries, most of the industrial plants work for 8 h/day and 6 days/week, i.e. 48 h/week. For such plants these is a need to set a different limit; a limit of 88 dB(A) L-eq for 8 h/day and 48 h/week with halving rate of 3 dB(A) is being proposed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.