Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Spring 1994
Degree Name
Master of Science in Occupational Safety and Health Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
First Advisor
Howard Gage
Second Advisor
Min-Yong Park
Third Advisor
Layek Abdel-Malek
Abstract
In an industrial environment, chronic noise exposure is assumed to affect human heart rate. If this is true, people who are more sensitive to noise will run a higher risk of incurring cardiovascular diseases.
Sixteen healthy experimental subjects, all with normal hearing, eight males and eight females, were exposed to five different types of pink and white noise at 60, 70, 80, and 85 dBA in order to determine if any relationship exists between the heart rate and sex. Each individual was exposed for a maximum of thirty seconds for each type and level of noise. Audiometric tests were given to subjects in order to measure their hearing sensitivity (threshold) before and after the experiment.
This study provides valuable information towards understanding if autonomic responses are higher in people who consider themselves sensitive to noise, and in determining if sex plays a role on any effects noise may exert on heart rate.
Recommended Citation
Fabregas, Jose R., "The effects of different types of noise on human heart rate" (1994). Theses. 1615.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/1615
