Assessment of Noise Exposure of Sawmill Workers in Southwest,Nigeria

Economic wood processing employs the use of industrial machines for cutting, shaping, milling, and sawing timber, thereby leading to the generation of high levels of noise. Published data from empirical studies have categorized noise as an environmental hazard of global significance. Furthermore, noise exposure limits for different industries and all the industrial machines available has not been formally established as it presently exists in developed nations around the world. Therefore, this study assessed the daily exposure of sawmills workers to noise in Southwestern Nigeria. Reconnaissance surveys were first carried out in Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, and Ogun States to select sawmills that were fully operational and fit for the study. Two fully functional sawmills in two cities of each State were eventually selected for data collection, making a total of 24 sawmills, while the Circular Machines (CM), Planer Machines (PM), and Band-saw Machines (BM) were the machines in each sawmill considered. Two machines each of CM, PM, and BM were considered in each sawmill, making a total of forty-eight (48) machines each of CM, PM, and BM. Sound data were collected between 7 am and 7 pm each day for six days (between Monday and Saturday) using Extech 407732 sound level meter and all stabilized measurements were taken three times at different intervals. The data collected were in three different periods: Machine No-work Period (NP_m), Machine Idle Period (IP_m), and Machine Working Period (WP_m). A two–way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out at P < 0.05 to determine whether there is a significant difference in the sound level average before and after the break, for both the idle and working periods of the three machines considered. This was also done to determine whether there is a significant difference between the sound level average of the results collected during idle and working periods of the three machines. Noise Pollution Levels (L_np) ranged from 83.20 dB (PM) to 107.65 (BM) and 93.42 (CM and PM) – 116.00 (BM) respectively, while IP_m also gave the least noise pollution level of 95.79 dB and WP_m gave the highest level of 102.88 dB. The results revealed that all the machines’ L_np values in the working period are more than the 90 dB acceptable limit the recommendation value of 90 dB while 89.6% of CMs, 75% of PMs, and 89.6% of BM had their L_np above 90 dB in the idle period respectively. The minimum and the maximum noise dose levels for IP_m, WP_m and overall are 0.09 (BM) and 2.37 (CM), 0.50 (CM), and 4.77 (PM) and 0.69 (BM) and 6.64 (PM) respectively. The study found out that the fundamental contributing factors to the high noise levels in sawmills are poor machine maintenance, use of old and obsolete machines, poor housekeeping strategy, limited space, workers’ negligence, lack of PPE, and lack of occupational safety training. The study recommends that proper workplace practices such as use of personal protective equipment, new and modern machines, training, and occupational safety programmes be implemented in the considered sawmills.     

Two-Dimensional Excitons in Multiple GaN/AlN Monolayer Quantum Wells

JETP Letters - The decay kinetics of low-temperature exciton photoluminescence in a heterostructure with multiple GaN/AlN monolayer quantum wells, which is prepared by molecular beam epitaxy, is...     

Role of Conformational Changes of Hexameric Bacterial Uridine Phosphorylases in Substrate Binding

Crystallography Reports - Crystals of mutants of uridine phosphorylase from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 at the active-site threonine residue were obtained, and the three-dimensional structures of...     

USING EIGENMODULI AND EIGENSTATES TO EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY OF MARTENSITIC PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS

Journal of Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics - The possibility of phase transitions (martensitic transformations) in&nbsp;shape-memory alloys is evaluated using the concept of eigenmoduli...     

Editorial

Mathematische Semesterberichte -     

On the Theory of Acoustic Scanning of Damage to Underground Pipelines

Acoustical Physics - The paper studies the evolution of a pulsed signal initiated by the pushing of a cylindrical piston and propagating through a stationary fluid filling a buried pipeline with an...     

Complexes of Nitrilotriacetic Acid with Amines. Molecular Structures of 2-Ammonioethanol Nitrilotriacetate and Bis{2-Ammonio-2-(Hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-Diol} Nitrilotriacetate

Crystallography Reports - Reactions of nitrilotriacetic acid with 2-aminoethanol, 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol, and 2,2'-(ethylenedioxy)bis(ethylamine) afford the following salts...     

Crystal Structure of the First Representative of the Eudialyte Group with Primitive Unit Cell

Crystallography Reports - The first representative of the eudialyte group with a primitive unit cell has been investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, electron probe microanalysis, and IR...     

A Modular Peel Fixture for Tape Peel Tests on Immovable Substrates

Background

Peel tests are frequently used to perform measurements of adhesive strength for pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tapes. Current lab methodologies for 90° peel tests translate the model substrate orthogonally to the peel direction in order to maintain the peel angle, precluding testing from immovable substrates.

Objective

It was our objective to develop a peel fixture capable of testing temporary pavement marking (TPM) tapes and other PSA tapes from immovable substrates such as roadways surfaces.

Methods

We present a modular peel fixture for conducting peel experiments directly on immovable substrates. The fixture was validated through a series of peel tests on consumer tapes to reproduce the linear width dependence and viscoelastic rate dependence found in traditional peeling setups. To test the capabilities of the fixture, a series of peel tests were conducted with various tapes on controlled surfaces, and a commercial tape on various immovable substrates.

Results

We demonstrate the ability of our fixture to reproduce results reported for traditional peel tests from literature. In addition, we were able to conduct peel tests directly on immovable substrates such as the benchtop.

Conclusions

This fixture shows potential for both traditional peeling tests, and for use in in-situ peel experiments from substrates relevant to the end application of the PSA tape.