Abstract
This study investigated the noise effect on physiological and subjective responses in semiconductor manufacturing environment. The noise was in the permitted range of regulation [≦85dB(A)], but was different in noise characteristics. Local continuous noises were collected from the field for laboratory simulation. Twenty subjects including 10 males and 10 females completed all phases of the experiment. Each subject was asked to participate four treatment combinations of two noise intensity [65dB(A) and 80dB(A)] x two frequency levels [high and low]. For each treatment condition, the subject was exposed to the specified noise condition in a sound proof cabin for one hour. The physiological measures included blood pressure and heart rate. The subjective measures included sensitivity, fatigue and annoyance. The ANOVA results indicated that long-time noise exposure caused significant increase in blood pressure (p<0.001). Furthermore, significant two-way interaction effect of noise intensity by time was found on annoyance and fatigue (p<0.001). The findings suggest that prolonged expose to noise with 80db(A) resulted in a significant increase in physiological costs and subjective discomforts.