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.     

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重卡驱动桥壳疲劳稳健性与轻量化设计

驱动桥壳轻量化设计对于提高承载能力、降低生产成本具有重要的意义.本文在驱动桥壳有限元分析和疲劳分析计算的基础上建立驱动桥壳多目标优化模型，对重型卡车驱动桥壳进行参数化设计，建立正交试验表，利用田口方法和综合评价方法对驱动桥壳的疲劳性能稳健性和质量进行优化设计.优化结果表明，此方法可以应用于驱动桥壳的多目标优化，优化后驱动桥壳的疲劳稳健性能得到提高，减轻了质量，因此节约了桥壳材料，降低了生产和运营成本，提高了设计水平.     

上海黄浦江两支流河流甲烷含量研究

甲烷是一种重要的温室气体,虽然目前大气中含量远小于二氧化碳,但排放增长率却大于后者.研究区域为上海市黄浦江支流苏州河和淀浦河,通过实验数据对比城郊春夏的甲烷排放的差异,探讨甲烷产生的机制及其与环境因子的关系,这将有助于研究河流甲烷排放对于环境变化的影响.研究结果认为河流甲烷主要来源于水中沉积物,其产生与水质、温度等因素相关;同时甲烷摩尔浓度与硝酸根离子质量体积比存在负相关性,与铵根离子质量体积比和有机碳质量分数存在正相关性.     

中国大气颗粒物污染与致癌研究进展

 室外空气污染和污染空气中的颗粒物是一类致癌物，而近年中国的大气颗粒物污染仍然维持在较高浓度水平。通过综述中国近年大气颗粒物污染现状和开展的颗粒物致癌机制研究，分析中国研究中颗粒物有关实验动物致癌性的证据和颗粒物致癌的人群流行病学线索，阐述大气颗粒物与癌症的关系，提出中国亟需开展相关研究。     

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本文探讨了数控技术专业毕业综合实训的改革思路，提出按职业资格标准强化技能培训，使学生在毕业前获得数控机床操作职业资格证书，切实提高学生的职业素质与就业竞争能力。     

城乡贫富差距中的人口因素探析

城乡人口差异是导致城乡贫富差距的重要根源,解决城乡贫富差距问题应该逐渐降低农村人口比例、提高农村人口素质。     

加强法制建设促进珠江上游经济环保整体发展

珠江上游南、北盘江流域水土流失严重，生态环境不断恶化，严重影响了该地区经济的可持续发展。法制建设在该地区环境保护中起着至关重要的作用，只有通过法律制度的不断创新和完善，才能为该地区的环境治理提供有效的法律保障，最终达到环境保护与经济发展的和谐统一。     

试论腐败的综合治理

腐败是由多种因素造成的 ,体制、管理和监督的失范是其产生的主要成因。该文提出了改革、监督、惩治等三项治理措施 ,认为综合治理是遏制腐败蔓延的唯一选择 ,在反腐败斗争中只有充分发挥改革、监督、惩治等各种手段之长 ,加强它们之间的内在联系 ,才能使综合治理取得成效。