Short review on occupational noise exposure in the extractive industry and similar works

Occupational noise is still a matter within the industrial practice with nefarious consequences on the worker’s health. Pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular problems, disturbances in sleep, fatigue, and, in the worst-case scenarios, hearing loss (this one with a permanent character) are some of the most common adverse effects reported in the literature. This issue covers itself in even more significant concern when analysing the mining industry context. Almost every operation works as a potential noise source, not only for the workers but also for the surrounding populations. Objective: To identify the exposure setting to occupational noise in the extractive industry and similar works (i.e. earthworks), particularly related to tasks and equipment. Methodology: The Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) was used as a guideline to help conduct the research and report of this work. The most relevant keywords were selected and later combined in the selected databases and multidisciplinary academic journals in the first phase. After, the articles were filtered with a set of exclusion criteria, to know: 1) Publication year, 2) Document type, 3) Source type, and 4) Language. The subsequent stage was to determine, within the remaining articles, the pertinence of each study and its later inclusion in the study. Each set of data was then classified according to the measurement context, and the results were analysed. Results and discussion: In the records’ identification phase, a total of 1148 papers were recovered. By applying the previously mentioned exclusion criteria, 547 were removed related to publication year, 146 due to document type, 12 related to source type and 25 because of language. Additionally, 360 records were excluded because were not in accordance with the proposed objective, 25 were duplicate articles, and 7 had no full-text available. From the last analysis, 11 more papers were excluded, which lead to a final result of 15 included studies. According to the occupational noise measurements set, the records were divided into four categories: activity, equipment, job category, and working area. Different equipment was associated with high noise levels: crusher – between 85.6 and 104 dB, trucks and bulldozes – above 100 dB, and shovel – 103 dB, whereas the only analysed activity was blasting, where studies concluded that increasing distance leads to lower noise measurement values. Conclusions: Considering this research, although it was possible to identify the tasks and equipment usually associated with occupational noise in the extractive industry, a lot of work still needs to be done, especially data analysis. However, this research serves as a starting point for future study.