Abstract– Noise pollution is the spread of noise which has harmful effects on human activities and animal life. Building sites contribute to most noises that are experienced outside. The main objective of this report is to discuss the matter of noise pollution in a construction site. Construction sites produce noise which is one of major acoustic polluting factors in the society (Janissa, 2018). The main impacts of noise pollution include interference with communication, cause sleeplessness and other inconveniences. Acute effects of noise pollution in a construction site include mental problems and hearing disorders. There have been campaigns to minimize noise pollutions through enhancement of construction rules, public education by the governments and other Non-Governmental Organizations (Babisch & Ahmad, 2010).
Keywords: Pollution, Noise, Construction sites, Construction noise, Impacts of noise, Human health
- Introduction
Noise is undesirable sound which has volume or amplitude of loudness, class of noise, or any other modality making resonance or obscene. Irritating noise and subsequent challenges, introduction of noise pollutants from building constructions, assemblage and all have come over to be exponentially significant. The inconveniences have impacts on workers and the local residences. Construction sites happen to be one of the known sources of noise pollution (Dinesh, 2017). Construction activities and demolition of buildings usually take place in residential places which are usually found out of towns. Construction noise come from construction site activities such as demolition, strategic works and building renewal work. In urban areas most of the construction noises come from construction of buildings, highways and city streets. Contributors of construction noise include loaders, pneumatic equipment, trucks, machine mounted percussion drills, breaking equipment and air compressors (Buket, et al., 2014).
Construction sector is a significant contributor of pollution, attributed to release of exhaust particles and a lot of noises mostly from machinery and heavy equipment that are used in fields of construction. Too much noise is a source of confound and irritation to human beings and can end up causing hypertension, loss of hearing and irregular heartbeat.
Main Findings
The table and graph below show some of typical noise levels found on construction site and average dB (A) for some construction activities respectively.
Table: Some of typical noise levels found on construction sites
Source: CPWR- Center for Construction Research and Training
Graph 1: Average dB (A) For Some Construction Activities
Source: Construction Safety Association of Ontario
- Literature Review
- The State of Noise Pollution from Construction Sites
Constructions are always very noisy and they are frequent sources of noise pollution globally. Heavy machineries, groups of people, power tools lead to extreme noise choruses.
Between all of these sources of noise in construction sites, many workers submit hearing loss compensation claims as others submit complaints about noises from the construction sites.
- Site Mobilization Management
This is an interdisciplinary field which is basically aim at optimizing facility placement effects on the workers and nature. The objective can be achieved by optimizing facilities placements such as crushing plants and batching plants which have destructive effects on health of the workers. The system includes proper management of facility placement to avoid harmful effects by ensuring proper arrangement of the facilities. It can be best enhanced by use of computer programs.
C. Factors of noise pollution in a construction site
The noises from construction work places come from different sources and they produce varying types of noise such as blast noise, background noise, rotating noise, idling noise, impact noise, squeals, intermittent noise and howling noise. Construction sites have different levels of destructive noise, and they usually occur for a short while where various traders camp on a site as they carry out their activities.
Depending on the level and type of construction, it is usually done outdoor, indoors or both. Different workers use specific equipment and machine to carry out their jobs, and thus production of different types of noises (Goines & Hagler, 2007). The activities at the construction sites frequently change as the construction continue. At the early stage of construction, carpenters may construct forms for the cement workers to pour the foundation concrete, steel structures maybe welded and erected by steel workers, later on the building is enclosed by roofers, stucco workers and brick masons. Finally the building is finished up by electricians, carpenters, plumbers and ventilation installers (Golmohammadi, et al., 2013).
Sources of noise that influence the surrounding population in a construction site include diesel power generators, transport machines, maintenance and repair, welding and cutting activities, erection and heavy machinery such as trucks. Each of these activities and use of different machines occur at different times hence noises created also vary with time. These jobs usually overlap, therefore the workers and surrounding residence that are relatively quiet get exposed to the unfavorable noise from the constructors (Geetha & Ambika, 2015).
Graph 2: Safe Sound Level verses Allowable Times per Day
Source: http://www.pollutionissues.com/Na-Ph/Noise-Pollution.html
1. Noise from the Trucks
This is always experienced in urban areas than in rural areas. Some investigations assume that there is always no noise pollution in rural areas. Heavy trucks carrying building materials are always very loud compared to normal passenger vehicles. The noise from these trucks is always irritating to the pedestrians and to those who live around the construction sites (Jennifer, 2019). This has led to restriction of trucks from accessing or passing through some areas during evening and night hours. Too much noise from these trucks causes some health problems such as unusual heartbeat frequency, changes in hormone states, increased rates of blood pressure and sleeplessness (Fatemeh & Amelia, 2011).
Impacts of noise pollution and costs have been reflected in the values of properties since people are usually not willing to pay and live in places that are near highways and other truck routes. The amount pollution from the trucks is influenced by other factors such as road surfaces, vehicle speeds, weather, and flow of traffic, type and conditions of the trucks (Jakovljevic, et al., 2006).
2. Construction machines
Construction machines which lead to noise pollution include concrete breaking devices, pile drivers, earth moving machines, combustion engines and pneumatically driven devices. Some construction project types are not usually put at risk by high noise, while some are, especially when some specific occur coincidentally. For some cases of construction sites, increased influence is usually felt from the surrounding nature and the place where the project is. The impacts of noise from construction sites is usually experienced when the activity takes place in area near to residential buildings or in a reflective environment (Jeff, 2010).
3. Power generators
Power generators and motors are some of the electrical machines at construction sites, and they produce a lot of unwanted noise which is very annoying. These power generators are usually utilized in areas where there is no power supply. They are used to power all the equipment that require electricity such as welding machines and lighting of dark places (Osagie, et al., 2018). The workers that use such machines are exposed to dangerous levels of noise because apart from the noise that is produced by the individual tool, the tool requires electricity to run. In most of the construction sites, the required electricity is sourced from power generators, which also produce a lot of noise, therefore the workers end up being subjected to double effects of noise pollution (OSH, 2013).
- Effects of Noise on Health of Workers
The intensity of noise is measured in decibel units. The scale of decibel is logarithmic. In every rise of 10 decibel represents a tenfold rise in the intensity of noise. The perception of workers towards loudness also relates with a logarithmic scale. A rise by 10 decibel is believed to approximately double the loudness. Distance reduces the effective level of the decibel which reaches the ear. Workers who are exposed to noise levels of 45 decibels cannot sleep. Pain is felt in the ear at 120 decibels, but hearing damage starts at a level of 85 decibels. The exposure duration is also critical. The noises can also cause sleeplessness, ulcers, heartburn, high blood pressure, indigestion, irritability and some heart diseases.
- Effects of Noise on the Site Environment
Noise pollution extremely affect lives of many animals. There is direct connection between noise and the health of animals. One of the man problems is the increased death risks.
Noise can also cause stress on animals increasing number of deaths by altering the vital balance in prey/predator detection and avoidance and by infringing in to their utilization of sounds in communication especially concerning navigation and reproduction. Another impact on lives of animals is the reduction in usable habitat due to construction noises.
F. Ways of Managing and Controlling Noise Pollution
Every construction project or activity is always different from the other and they usually keep changing. Construction activities do not happen on one location or are rather stationary. These activities occur in places where they can be affected by topography, landscaping, weather, atmosphere and wind tunnels (Haron, et al., 2008). Relatively, construction noise producers such as heavy earth moving equipment can relocate from one point to the other and its intensity in noise production will significantly change throughout the work day. Therefore, management solutions for noise produced have been tailored to favour such cases. The methods usually include use of quitter equipment, barrier protection, noise perimeter zones, and modification of the existing equipment, periodic maintenance of machines and proper scheduling of activities at the construction sites (Radka, 2017).
1. Engineering controls: This process modifies the equipment or machine being used to be quieter. Such engineering controls include replacing existing equipment with the ones which are quieter, retro-fitting available machines with damping apparatus, enclosures, mufflers, carrying out periodic maintenance on existing equipment and erecting barriers around areas that produce annoying noises (Nwasinachi & Jonah, 2015).
2. Administrative Controls: These include decisions of management on work load, work responsibilities, and work rotation to minimize worker’s exposure to too much levels of annoying noises. Such typical decisions of management to minimize exposure to too much noise include, restricting access to construction sites, transferring workers from extreme noise sources, proper rotation of workers who do noisy tasks and shutting down of extremely noisy equipment when they are not needed (Richard & Jerry, 2019).
- Personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment include earplugs and are always provided to workers to minimize their exposure to dangerous noise effects. This always serves as the last option when other control methods have been tried and observed to fail or are infeasible. The rule is always provided and it states that, every worker must always use earplugs whenever they are working in areas with noise levels of 85 dB or when the environment does not allow normal communication apart from shouting (Ballesteros & Fernandez, 2010).
- Workplace and Occupational Noise and Vibration
Globally, the health hazards of noise and vibration exposure in the construction site have been noted and are subject to standards of safety. Most jurisdictions have Occupational Safety and Health Legislation in place. It dictates the maximum safe workplace exposure levels and stipulates the responsibilities of the employer in protecting the hearing of the workers. For the case of United States, the Occupational Noise Exposure Standard is OSHA 29 CFR 1910.95 as set by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In Alberta, the limits of workplace noise exposure are set by Part 16 of the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Code. In Canada, every province sets its own standards.
- Conclusion
This report presents the causes, effects and ways of controlling excessive noise at the construction site. Construction activities are usually inherently noisy and the noise is usually dangerous as it affects the workers and the comfort of people residing around the construction site. Most of the direct ways of controlling noise in construction sites can be easily implemented since the workers and contractors do not have diverse acoustical technical base to quiet equipment. Minimizing effects of noise exposure or isolation of nearby people from the sources of annoying noise are the noise management methods, also provision of personal ear protection and engineered methods for controlling noise (Lam, et al., 2011).
Some construction and demolition activities produce noises that are unavoidable but its severe effects can be avoided by performing the activity in a considerable manner and suitable time. The method used and the time of activity can bring out a big difference in terms of noise in a construction site. Often, construction site noise challenges are usually solved by combined efforts of the workers and the contractors. Proper managed and controlled construction sites from noise helps in protecting people from severe effects of noise pollution such as saving them from losing their hearing abilities (Narendra & Davar, 2017).
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