“As soon as there is noise, I can’t think, I hate it”: more than six out of ten working people say they are bothered by noise pollution at work, a risk for hearing, but also fatigue or stress that is still little taken into account.
Imago
The French Institute for Research and Safety (Inrs) points out that hearing is in danger from a level of 80 decibels (the equivalent of heavy automobile traffic or horns) during a working day of 8 hours. But prolonged exposure to noise, “even at average levels can lead to fatigue, stress and anxiety.”
However, according to an Ifop study for the National Hearing Association published Thursday, the share of working people in work who are hampered reaches 62%, up ten points in one year.
This discomfort concerns all age groups, and people who work in open spaces are the most affected (74%), indicates this barometer produced for Hearing Health at Work Week (October 14 to 19).
After days in the noise of the open space, Emma, a thirty-year-old who works in the environment sector, spoke to AFP of a feeling of “too much” and the frustration of having the impression of thinking ” going in circles.”
“I believe that there are people’s brains that do things differently, and so for me, as soon as there is noise, I can’t think at all,” “I hate that,” she told the AFP. She did not opt for noise-cancelling headphones because she finds it “a bit weird and counterproductive” in the presence of her colleagues.
If, like Emma, working people first cite fatigue, weariness and irritability (60%) among the health repercussions of noise, others report stress (50%). They are also 37% who mention discomfort hearing (momentary reduction in speech understanding), or to mention sleep disorders (33%), tinnitus – whistling, buzzing – (32%) or even deafness (24%) and hypertension (22%) .
“Hidden Scourge”
“Hypersensitive”, Marie Balland, makes no difference “between a small noise and a big noise”. When colleagues talk nearby, “type on their keyboard, on the desk, when there are sounds of keys, noises of bracelets…”, she has difficulty concentrating.
After a day in constant noise, “it’s especially the migraines that are intense,” says this young woman who works in digital communications, in open space “most of the time.”
The subject is still little taken into account. In a recent note for the Jean Jaurès foundation, Romain Bendavid, expert on quality of life issues at work, evokes “a hidden scourge”.
If employers recognize that hearing requires preventive actions (installation of partitions, formwork of machines, etc.), this priority “does not appear at the top of the pile”. Only 44% of workers believe that hearing health is sufficiently taken into account by their employer, indicates the Ifop survey, the association estimating that “the reduction of noise at work must become a major axis in the entire economy “.
And if working on site is more of a source of inconvenience (63%), teleworking (56%) does not fully protect assets.
Self-employed in business consulting, Clément explains to AFP that when his partner is teleworking, “the principle of open space is recreated at home”.
“As we are sometimes both on the phone, taking turns, it can be disturbing,” he explains, adding that he has “this thing” of tending to listen if he overhears a conversation.
In a quiet work space, “the only noise is the voice of the other,” he observes. “If we had the noise from the street, if we had a colleague, in the end, we would be used to it,” but paradoxically, he says, “we are too well off.”
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