People working in factories are most exposed to noise; however, also schools and kindergartens, cafes and open offices may be noisy. Scientifically it has been proved that excessive noise and constant noise do not allow concentration, decrease productivity, cause headaches and constant fatigue.
Many of us work much more efficiently while doing it in silence and being on one’s own; however, in modern offices a personal office room is luxury. Occupations which require thinking and concentration are definitely disturbed by background noise. Even if it is not directly noticed, the sound of colleagues’ conversation may decrease the efficiency of your work by 50%.
Although noise is unavoidable in such branches of activity like processing industry and construction, it may cause problems in many other working environments starting with call centres and schools moving on to orchestra pits and bars. Every fifth European worker must raise his voice at work in half of work-related cases to make himself audible, and 7% of people have work-related hearing damage. Decreased hearing ability caused by noise is the most frequent professional health issue in the EU.
High noise level enhances the formation of cardio-vascular disorders and constant disposure to moderately high noise level during an eight-hour period increases the stress level and blood pressure by 5 to 10 points. In addition to the negative effect on the nerve system, noise causes disorders in the gastric system (impairment in worst cases), harms metabolism and causes hormonal imbalance. Noise makes people moody and bad-tempered.
Impact of noise at different levels:
- Optimal noise level of 10–20 dBA occurs in nature on a day with calm weather.
- Acceptable noise level in the office that does not disturb working is 50–55 dBA.
- Noise level over 60 dBA already starts to disturb concentration, especially disrupted and impulse noise, like a phone ringing, other people’s talking, and street noise audible inside (cars).
- 70 dBA disturbs speaking on the phone.
- 80 dBA disturbs communication between people.
The recommended noise level in residential areas during the daytime is 55 dB and 50 dB at night. In Tallinn such areas mainly include the main streets and the railway; people are less affected by tram traffic and industry. The biggest number of complaints about noise is received from Tallinn and Harju County (64%), Viru County (16%), Tartu (12%) and Pärnu (7%).
The main problem in offices and schools, kindergartens, hospitals, water centres, etc. is the excessive reflection of sound, which forms a disturbing echo in the room. In a room with bad acoustics it is not possible to understand speech and permanent being in such rooms may cause permanent health damage and stress. In order to decrease echo in a room, we install acoustic panels. The panels are installed either on the wall or the ceiling. The products are with different design and meet the most fastidious taste. Acoustic boards are 15-50 mm thick rigid wool boards, which are all without any exception class A sound absorbers. The application area is very wide starting with offices and ending with hospitals.
If there is also too much noise at your workplace, then leave us your contacts and we will contact you within 24 hours to give you solutions!
