The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed
a software tool that simplifies the record-keeping and analysis process of
noise exposure. The objective is to help mine safety and health professionals
manage and reduce hazardous noise exposure with this software.

The software program "Determination of Sound Exposures" (DOSES) is designed
specifically for use by mine management and safety personnel to simplify the
record-keeping and analysis associated with time-motion studies, making it
easier to identify and solve noise exposure problems.

DOSES assesses noise exposure by analyzing the time-motion study data of a
worker's daily schedule broken down by task and location. This analysis is
shown visually on the main screen in tabular form and as a plot of the
cumulative dose and observed sound level over time as each observation from the
time study is entered. As each entry is completed, the percent noise exposure
is calculated using one of three formulas chosen by the user.

Once the study is completely entered, a more in-depth analysis is performed
where cumulative exposures by task and location are calculated and displayed in
tables and bar graphs. If a dosimeter was used during the time study, the
dosimeter log file can be imported into the program for comparison to the
observation-based results.

Customizable reports from the data can be generated and printed or saved in
HTML format. With these analysis capabilities, high noise exposure aspects of
the job can be easily identified by task or location, allowing the safety
officer to mitigate them with engineering or administrative noise controls. The
raw time study observation data can also be exported in comma-separated ASCII
format for easy use by other programs.

Download the full report from this page

AplusA-online.de - Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)