OBJECTIVETo investigate the industrial noise over-limit status of the worksites in Guangzhou factories, so as to promote the prevention and control of occupational noise hazards.

METHODS211 factories in Guangzhou were monitored and investigated. The analysis and assessment were developed for the properties and size of the factories, the districts of the factories being located, the industries of the factories being classified and the date of monitoring.

RESULTSIn this understudied factories, most of them were national-owned and joint-ventures, medium size, located in urban, and mainly involved in the industries of manufacturing of motor vehicle, shipping, electron and electric equipment, and the industries of petroleum and chemicals. The prevalence of noise over-limit was higher in joint-ventures (36.0%) and private-run enterprises (31.2%). The over-limit status mainly presented in industries of textile, food and beverage processing, and leather producing, with getting prevalence of over-limit 46.7%, 43.1% and 41.3% respectively. Subsequence were industries of manufacturing of electron and electric equipment, motor vehicle and shipping, and industries of printing and goods producing for culture and sports, with the prevalence for all > 35%. Factories monitored during spring and summer also had higher prevalence of noise over-limit. The similar results were got after adjustment for each other using multivariable regression. The most common over-limit sites mainly focused on the operation of cutting and sawing, milling and planing, pressing, riveting, drilling, jointing, assembling and quality inspecting in industries of mechanism processing and manufacturing, on quality inspecting and packing in industries of pharmacy and food and beverage manufacture, on spinning and scutching in textile industry, and on cleaning and maintaining as assistant jobs, and patrolling and inspecting air-press machine, ventilation machine, dynamotor and pump.

CONCLUSIONNoise in Guangzhou factories widely exists with different industries and districts. To strengthen noise occupational hazards prevention and control for the high risk districts, industries and worksites should be the key job in the future.