Occupational noise exposure and the exposure to ototoxic substances: a case study in the injection sector in the footwear industry

Abstract

The footwear industry presents several risks to workers, being noise one of the mostimportant. This works aims to evaluate the occupational noise exposure in the injection sector of a footwearindustry, in accordance to Decree-Law no 182/2006 and the guidelines of the NP EN ISO 9612.The possibility of a combined effect with ototoxic substances will also be analysed. The results indicatethat workers were exposed to a LEX, 8h ≥ 85 dB (A). The hearing protectors available provide differentnoise attenuations, being observed differences in the acceptability when the Portuguese law and NP EN458 guidelines were compared. Since the use of at least one solvent containing ototoxic substances wasidentified, a combined effect with the noise was considered to be synergic. Despite the obtained resultsfrom this analysis, it was considered urgent to control the exposure, particularly in implementing collectivemeasures priority to individual ones.