Hazards arising from physical agents
This refers to effects such as noise, vibrations, radiation (radioactive or optical), ultrasound, electromagnetic fields and over- or underpressure.
Unless it's your favourite music, which you can listen to for hours at full volume. Only someone else's favourite music makes you sick in the long run!
All nonsense! You don't get sick from other people's tastes, but from constant sound over a volume of about 80 db(A). And these 80 db are not as loud as you think. Or are not perceived as very loud. Listening to music with headphones ("normal volume") is already above 95 db. Permanent damage to hearing cannot be ruled out from around 85 db continuous exposure.
To get a better impression of how loud what is here an overview:
| Breathe, rustling leaf, snowfall | 10 db |
| very quiet room, ticking of a wristwatch, light wind | 30 db |
| Whispering, soft music, quiet residential street at night | 40 db |
| rain, refrigerator, quiet conversation, noises in the apartment | 55 db |
| normal conversation, sewing machine, television at room volume | 65 db |
| Vacuum cleaner, kettle, running tap | 70 db |
| Canteen noise, washing machine when spinning, open-plan office | 75 db |
| loud speech, argument, piano playing | 80 db |
| Saxophone playing, main road | 85 db |
| Chamber concert, orchestra pit, door slams | 90 db |
| music (headphones), wood milling machine | 95 db |
| Drums/rock concert, chainsaw | 110 Dezibel |
The pain threshold, by the way, is about 120 db.
| chainsaw, pneumatic hammer, thunderstorm, China firecracker, loud classical symphony concert, vuvuzela | 120 Dezibel |
| Car race, fighter plane, gunshot. | 140 Dezibel |
| Forge hammer, gun bang | 150 Dezibel |
It shakes a man's head.
Constant vibrations, either on the whole body or "only" on hands and arms, lead to joint damage or even neurological damage in the long run. Imagine your vehicle is hardly sprung and you are driving along a dirt road. Or you can mow the lawn for hours every day with one of these old petrol 2-stroke rattling mowers.
Neither the one nor the other occur particularly frequently in your work area at university. However, please be aware of whether such stress could play a role in your working environment.
Star Wars in the lab
Of course, we're not talking about laser guns, laser swords and tractor beams. But strong lasers and strong electromagnetic fields in physics. One inattention is enough and the eyesight is in danger. Or the pacemaker is going crazy.
Working under pressure
Here we don't mean the pressure that the boss is exerting because things are going too slowly again!
This refers to the physical overpressure (or negative pressure). Do you have to be under water occasionally in the context of your research? Not only divers, but also the house fire brigade works, so to speak, under overpressure when breathing apparatus with compressed air cylinders are used.
In biology, entire laboratories are sometimes under a slight negative pressure so that no bio-materials can escape. Find out about the conditions and limits.
Do you have to travel a lot, by plane? There is negative pressure in the cabin as in about 2000 metres above sea level. That's not much, but if you have problems with the natural pressure balance in the inneo ear, it can be very painful.
