Possible Effects on Health of Ultrasound Exposure, Risk Factors in the Work Environment and Occupational Safety Review

Abstract

Ultrasonic waves are mechanical waves with a frequency greater than 20,000 Hz. Ultrasonic waves are emitted by devices that are used in industry or that have a medical or aesthetic purpose. There is growing interest in the effect of ultrasound absorption on the human body, since people’s exposure to these acoustic waves has increased considerably in recent years. There are more and more devices that emit ultrasounds used for different sanitary procedures, aesthetic treatments and industrial processes, creating more possibilities of ultrasound noise, and therefore an increased risk of occupational hazard and occupational danger. Experiments on animals have shown damage to internal organs from receiving different ultrasonic frequencies. The main task of this work was to organize and summarize recent studies on ultrasound to reflect the current state of this technique and establish a systematic basis for future lines of research. This work has allowed us to better understand the unknown field of these high frequencies of sound, and highlights the need to carry out more studies on the ultrasound emissions that can be absorbed by the human body to determine how this energy could affect humans by calculating the maximum dose of exposure and developing manuals for the use of ultrasound-emitting equipment to protect the health of workers and all people. It is necessary to develop regulations by public administrations to improve the protection of workers, health professionals, patients and all people in general for better occupational safety, indoor environmental quality and environmental health.

Potential Effects on Human Safety and Health from Infrasound and Audible Frequencies Generated by Vibrations of Diesel Engines Using Biofuel Blends at the Workplaces of Sustainable Engineering Systems

“…The ear of the human being is responsive to wave frequencies from ~20 Hz up to ~20 kHz, with a sound level magnitude from 0 dB up to 140 dB, and more specifically, it is more susceptible to mid-range frequencies and less receptive to high and low frequencies [6]. It is ordinary to keep the frequency limits intended for audible sound amid ~20-~20,000 Hz, but on the other hand, these limits should be determined by the sensitivity of each individual [6].…”

“…Taking into account the guidelines of NTP 205 "Ultrasound: Occupational Exposure" report by INSHT [6,41], the sources of ultrasound generation can be categorized in accordance with their frequencies, as (i) low frequency (LF: 10,000-100,000 Hz), for industrial applications; (ii) medium frequency (MF: (0.1-1.0 MHz), for therapeutic purposes; and (iii) high frequency (HF: 1.0-10 MHz), mostly used for medical applications and non-destructive control devices. Certainly, the sources with very low frequencies (VLF), lower than 20 Hz, constitute the infrasound spectrum of noise.…”

“…Keeping with this, infrasound (infrasonic) noise (i.e., sound waves with frequencies below the lower limit of ~20 Hz of human audibility) and audible (up to ~20 kHz) noise are very considerable threats in each day of human life, especially in occupational workplaces. According to the scientific literature, noise is one of the most significant hazard sources in workplaces and working environments in general, due to the generated dangers that offend human health [3][4][5][6]. Moreover, the ESAW's taxonomy (i.e., the European Statistics on Accidents at Work, by EUROSTAT), as far as the sources of danger are concerned, considers the whole spectrum of noise as one of the noteworthy occupational sources of danger [7].…”

“…On the other hand, there have been many studies, like the one in [6], about the possible effects on health from ultrasound exposure. Ultrasound is transmitted into the air by a variety and different kinds of machines [32][33][34].…”

Low-intensity continuous ultrasound to inhibit cancer cell migration

“…(1) . ( Moyano et al, 2022 ): where A t=0h is the area of the wound measured immediately after scratching (t = 0h) and A t=𝚫h is the area of the wound measured 𝚫h hours after the scrath performance. The closure percentage will increase as cells migrate over time.…”