Risk analysis of noise in industry making clothes

Purpose : to get into an underexplored work environment and to identify if this environment might bring hearing losses to the workers.Methods : the environment chosen is a garment factory located in Colatina, Espírito Santo/Brazil. The two noisiest areas of the factory were selected to be analyzed, as well as six employees that have been working there for five years or so. The employees were asked to fill in a questionnaire on the hearing symptoms and then the audiometric tests taken for the last five years were compared. The analyzed areas produce noise from 83,5 to 97,8 dB.Results : from the audiometric tests we could conclude that 83% of the workers did not have any hearing loss, although 16% had occupational loss, but this was classified as stable. From the questionnaire we can conclude that 33% of the workers feel some kind of fatigue when exposed to high level sound for some time, 50% feel themselves stressed after their work shift, but none of them stated to hear any buzz nor insomnia, nor difficulty hearing other people.Conclusion : this work environment presents some risks to the hearing, once the employees are exposed to sound pressure levels during their work shifts, and the occupational hearing loss is evident although to a lesser extent – considering that the sample employees have been working there for at least five years. Therefore, it is plain to understand the importance of studying a good variety of work environments to identify where prevention programs, like the HLPP (Hearing Loss Prevention Program) should be applied.