2007, Piran, Slovenia

Working environment
RESULTS
The highest sound-level of the noise sources, 105 dB(A), was measured at a dairy farm when
crushing grain by a grain roller. There were more than twenty different sources of noise
exceeding the critical limit 85 dB(A), such as grain roller, silage blower, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Higher sound level of noise sources measured at the farms.
Noise source
Sound level
Leq dB(A) Measuring place, note
Grain roller 88 -105 In a separate room, on loft, in building beside cow-shed
Silage blower, electric motor 97 - 104 During putting silage into unloading table, emptying silage
Grinding machine 92 - 103 During grinding knives in workshop
Straw chopper, gasoline-powered 100 In loose housing barn
Grain mill 90 - 97 In a separate room, in building beside piggery
Lorry motor 96 Driven fan blower for filling silage in i tower silo
Vacuum cleaner 86 - 95 During clearning drying plant or passages of piggery
Electric saw 94 Sawing, 60 cm blade
Compressor, vacuum pump 94 In a separate room, in the adjacent room to milk cooler
Electric motor for mucking out 82 - 93 In piggery, hydraulic motor in a specially room in house
Pigs 87 - 93 At feed-lot, during vaccinating of pigs
Fodder mixer 87 - 91 Above milking parlour, in the adjacent room to piggery
High-pressure washing 81 - 91 Cleaning of milking parlour, in hall adjacent to piggery
Hay drier 86 - 88 About 3 meters below exhaust
Ventilation fan 87 In piggery
Pump 81 - 86 Two stirring pumps at silos in feed-room, one in feed mixer
Grain drier 86 About 3 meters below exhaust
Cyclone 85 Silage wagon during emptying, ~ 4m up of the building
Compressor of fodder steering 85 Compressor-room in pig barn
Tractor 85 In a Cabin, door closed 540 rpm PTO
Refrigerating machine 85 In cooling-room
Noise dose measurements are shown in Figure 1. The results showed much variation, from 4
to 853 percent. Among the 37 measurements, 9 exceeded the hazardous exposure limit of 100
percent and there are risks for hearing impairment. A noise dose of 100 percent is equivalent
to hazardously noise exposure at a limit of 85 dB(A) for an 8-hour working day. These was
considerable noise variation, from 4-853%. Among the 37 measurements, 9 exceeded the
hazardous exposure limit of 100%, which means a risk of hearing impairment. The large
variation depended both on sound level of different noise sources and on the duration the
farmer was exposed.
Furthermore, Figure 2 shows examples of the dose measurements with two participants
worked with different activities over one working day at a pig farm (Figure 2a) and a milking
farm (Figure 2b), respectively. It is seen in Fig2a that the worker was exposed to very high
noise level (> 100 dB(A)) when he worked with angle grinder and other electrical hand tools
in workshop. The duration of this operation was quite long, ~5 hours, over this working day,
which resulted in the extremely noise dose of 853%. As shown in Figure 2b the another
worker was also exposed to high noise levels when he worked with a food-mixer of silage and
driving old tractor to unload silage balers, etc. The noise dose on that working day was 185%,
which is also much higher than the risk criterion for hearing loss.
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