Assessment of Occupational Noise Exposure in Local Grain Mills in Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria

The assessment of occupational health hazard of noise generated from grain mills in Bera, Karaofi and Magami areas of Jalingo metropolis of Taraba state in North-East region of Nigeria has been carried out. The objective of the study was to evaluate the level of occupational noise exposure among grain mill workers and customers and to determine compliance with recommended occupational safety standards. A total of 45 grain mill workers were interviewed, comprising 15 workers each from Bera, Karaofi, and Magami, to obtain information on working hours, exposure duration, and the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE). A descriptive statistical tool (Simple percentage) was used to analyse the results. The results indicate that the mean noise generated from Bera, Karaofi and Magami grain mills are 100.3 dB, with exposure of 12 h per day, 89.35 dB with exposure of 12 hours per day and 99.8 dB with exposure of 7 hours per day respectively. The noise generated from these grain mills exceed the permissible exposure limit recommended by national institute of occupational health association and occupational health safety administration of 85 dB The implication of the results is that all the grain mills workers in jalingo metropolis are susceptible to Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). The results of the noise at grinding, packaging and conveyors at each location also exceed the recommended exposure limit which makes the customers also vulnerable to health hazards. The findings also show that almost all the grain mill workers in the selected areas work over eight hours per day. The result also indicates that 86.7% of the grain mills workers were not provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as ear mufflers, vibrator dampers. The results also reveal that most of the machines used in grain mill are obsolete thereby making them to generate more noise than necessary. It was also discovered that none of the site visited uses noise damper in their grain mills. This placed the workers on high risk of noise- induce hearing loss and other health hazard associated with prolonged noise exposure such as high blood pressure, stress, hypertension, fatigue, reduced productivity, and difficulties in communication.