The effect of low frequency noise and vibration on people is an important issue for communities around many industrial facilities and an transportation systems. There are a number of research groups throughout the world which have been actively researching these effects. This book brings together, for the first time in one set of covers, over thirty papers on the effects of low frequency noise and vibration on people.

The papers are arranged under five headings:

• Perception thresholds for low frequency noise

• Effect of low frequency noise on people in terms of annoyance and sleep deprivation

• Physiological effects of low frequency noise

• Perception thresholds for low frequency vibration and the effect of low frequency vibration on people in terms of comfort and annoyance

• Physiological and health effects of low frequency vibration

Interest in the powerful effects of low frequency noise and vibration on people is widespread; thus this work will appeal to researchers in disciplines as diverse as acoustics, vibration, psychology, occupational health and environmental health It will also appeal to researchers in academia and designers of all kinds of industrial equipment, in terms of its generation of low frequency sound and its effect on whole body vibration. Regulatory and standards bodies, as well as Trade Unions, will also be interested in this work.

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Perception thresholds for low frequency noise

Unpleasantness and acceptable limits of low frequency sound
Yukio Inukai, Norio Nakamura and Hideto Taya

An investigation of the perception thresholds of band-limited low frequency noises: influence of bandwidth
Yasunao Matsumoto, Yukio Takahashi, Setsuo Maeda, Hiroki Yamaguchi, Kazuhiro Yamada and Jishnu K Subedi

Masked perception thresholds of low frequency tones under background noises and their estimation by loudness model
Jishnu K. Subedi, Hiroki Yamaguchi, Yasunao Matsumoto

Thresholds and acceptability of low frequency pure tones by sufferers
Yukio Inukai, Hideto Taya and Shinji Yamada

Chapter 2: Effect of low frequency noise on people in terms of annoyance and sleep deprivation

Low frequency noise and annoyance in classroom
Pär Axelsson, Kjell Holmberg and Ulf Landström

A Structured approach to LFS-complaints in the Rotterdam region of the Netherlands
Ing. Piet Sloven

Annoyance of low frequency noise and traffic noise
Frank Rysgaard Qistdorff and Torben Poulsen

Perceptions of the public of low frequency noise
D.M.J.P. Manley, P. Styles and J. Scott

A questionnaire survey of complaints of infrasound and low-frequency noise
Henrik Møller and Morten Lydolf

Assessments of low frequency noise complaints among the local Environmental Health Authorities and a follow-up study 14 years later
Johanna Bengtsson and Kerstin Persson Waye

Low Frequency Noise Annoyance: The Behavioural Challenge
Stephen Benton and Orna Abramsom-Yehuda

Comparison of objective methods for assessment of annoyance of low frequency noise with the results of a laboratory listening test
Torben Poulsen

Blast densification method: Sound propagation and estimation of psychological and physical effects
Hiroyuki Imaizumi, Yasumori Takahashi, Motoharu Jinguuji, and Sunao Kunimatsu

Annoyance of low frequency noise (LFN) in the laboratory assessed by LFN-sufferers and non-sufferers
Torben Poulsen

Psychological analysis of complainants on noise/low frequency noise and the relation between psychological response and brain structure
Toshiya Kitamura, Masaki Hasebe, and Shinji Yamada

Annoyance of low frequency tones and objective evaluation methods
Jishnu K. Subedi, Hiroki Yamaguchi, Yasunao Matsumoto and Mitsutaka Ishihara

LFN and the A-weighting
Piet Sloven

Low frequency noise annoyance and the negotiation challenge for environmental officers and sufferers
Stephen Benton

Chapter 3. Physiological effects of low frequency noise

Some characteristics of human body surface vibration induced by low frequency noise
Yukio Takahashi, Kazuo Kanada and Yoshiharu Yonekawa

The relationship between vibratory sensation and body surface vibration induced by low-frequency noise
Yukio Takahashi, Kazuo Kanada and Yoshiharu Yonekawa

Measurement of human body surface vibrations induced by complex low-frequency noise composed of two pure tones
Yukio Takahashi and Setsuo Maeda

An investigation on the physiological and psychological effects of infrasound on persons
Chen Yuan Huang Qibai and Hanmin Shi

Effects on spatial skills after exposure to low frequency noise
Jessica Ljungberg, Gregory Neely and Ronnie Lundström

Does low frequency noise at moderate levels influence human mental performance? Malgorzata Pawlaczyk-Luszczynska, Adam Dudarewicz, Malgorzata Waszkowska, Wieslaw Szymczak, Maria Kamedula, Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska

Chapter 4. Perception thresholds for low frequency vibration and the effect of low frequency vibration on people in terms of comfort and annoyance

Perception of low frequency vibrations by heavy vehicle drivers
Rayya Hassan and Kerry McManus

Vibration perception thresholds assessed by two different methods in healthy subjects
Ewa Zamyslowska-Szmytke, Wieslaw Szymczak and Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska

Chapter 5. Physiological and health effects of low frequency vibration

Occupational disease induced by hand transmitted vibration - The relationship between characteristics of case and kind of tool
Shin'ya Yamada and Hisataka Sakakibara

The evaluation of horizontal whole-body vibration in the low frequency range
Masashi Uchikune

Study of the effects of whole-body vibration in the low frequency range
Masashi Uchikune