| ARTICLES |
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| Year : 2001 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 13 | Page : 33--49 |
Low frequency noise "pollution" interferes with performance
Kerstin Persson Waye1, Johanna Bengtsson1, Anders Kjellberg2, Stephen Benton3
1 Department of Environmental Medicine, Göteburg University, Sweden
2 National Institute for Working Life, Stockholm, Sweden
3 Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Correspondence Address:
Kerstin Persson Waye
Department of Environmental Medicine, Göteburg University, Box 414, Göteburg 405 30
Sweden
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
PMID: 12678934 
To study the possible interference of low frequency noise on performance and annoyance, subjects categorised as having a high- or low sensitivity to noise in general and low frequency noise in particular worked with different performance tasks in a noise environment with predominantly low frequency content or flat frequency content (reference noise), both at a level of 40 dBA. The effects were evaluated in terms of changes in performance and subjective reactions. The results showed that there was a larger improvement of response time over time, during work with a verbal grammatical reasoning task in the reference noise, as compared to the low frequency noise condition. The results further indicated that low frequency noise interfered with a proof-reading task by lowering the number of marks made per line read. The subjects reported a higher degree of annoyance and impaired working capacity when working under conditions of low frequency noise. The effects were more pronounced for subjects rated as high-sensitive to low frequency noise, while partly different results were obtained for subjects rated as high-sensitive to noise in general. The results suggest that the quality of work performance and perceived annoyance may be influenced by a continuous exposure to low frequency noise at commonly occurring noise levels. Subjects categorised as high-sensitive to low frequency noise may be at highest risk.
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