Date of Award:

5-1973

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education

Department name when degree awarded

Industrial and Technical Education

Committee Chair(s)

Austin G. Loveless

Committee

Austin G. Loveless

Committee

Carl Wallis

Committee

John Van Derslice

Committee

Kenneth Farrer

Committee

Robert Wininger

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the existing noise conditions within industrial education woodworking and metalworking laboratories to determine whether these noise conditions were a problem as seen by the instructors and if in fact these noise conditions exceeded the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). The study was conducted in three phases: (1) the assessment of the opinions of professional industrial educators towards noise as a pollutant; (2) an electronic instrument measurement of the actual noise exposure conditions that existed in a sampling of laboratories; and (3) the comparison between the opinions of the professional educators and the actual laboratory noise conditions.

The study incorporated the responses from every identifiable high school woods and metals instructor throughout Utah. Comparisons between groups were made concerning the opinions of the professional educators.

towards noise as a pollutant, their knowledge about OSHA, and their identification of the noisiest pieces of equipment. The second phase of the study entailed the electronic instrument measurement of the actual environmental noise levels within 30 randomly selected laboratories. The use of a sound level dosimeter and a hand held sound level meter were employed.

The data obtained from the study disclosed that the two groups were not in agreement on their knowledge about OSHA. The electronic instrument measurements revealed that 8 of the 18 woodworking instructors and 5 of the 12 metals instructors visited were subjected to noise exposures that were in violation to OSHA. The loudest pieces of equipment were the surface planer, radial arm saw, table saw, foundry furnace, pedestal grinder and portable disc grinder.

The third phase of the study used a statistical analysis to compare the opinions of the instructors to the actual measured noise conditions. The chi-square test for significance at the . 05 level of confidence was used to reject the null hypothesis.

The major conclusions reached as a result of the analysis of data include: (1) a potential safety and health hazard exists from noise pollution within the industrial education facilities; (2) many members of the profession are not fully informed about OSHA; (3) most labs are in compliance to OSHA noise standards, however, many do exceed the maximum allowable limits; (4) under stringent OSHA compliance, certain curriculum alterations would have to be initiated; (5) there is no apparent connection between those laboratoryies which were in violation to OSIIA noise standards and the composition of size and construction materials; (6) the opinions of the teachers from the field do not necessarily reflect the actual measured conditions of the environmental noise exposures; and (7) the din of noise produced around machinery must not be considered a problem relevant only to industry.

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