Work Noise Hearing Loss - Essay Example

Homework 2 Work Noise Hearing Loss The most hurting work related injury is US is work noise and the loss of hearing. According to the reports of Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, around 22 million workers are suffering from such diseases. If loss of hearing and work noise is not cured or prevented at the initial level, it may result in permanent deafness and hearing loss. Following is the program for prevention of loss of hearing and work noise based on 8 components: 1. Use of computer related technology to detect the noise exposure. 2. Use of engineering and allied controls to ensure, that workers are properly using adequate noise eliminating products. 3. Use of latest technology called audiometric evaluation which finds out as to how much noise is being absorbed by the worker 4. Use of ear mufflers and other devices to ensure hearing protection 5. Education and workers training to teach them techniques, in order to prevent hearing loss diseases 6. Information and data recording 7. Performance evaluation of administrators by the workers to judge their performance as how they are providing awareness to workers regarding hearing loss 8. Program audit of the hearing loss program Medical advice is turned out to be the first and foremost treatment of hearing loss. Once this disease is diagnosed and it is proved that the hearing loss is occurred while performing the job at workplace, the sole responsibility would be borne by employer and be liable to compensate and reimburse the medical expenses in this regard. In collaboration with Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the program audits are conducted in which program evaluation is performed by testing the hearing loss of workers after every 2 months and the related data is recorded. Homework 4 Sustainability Sustainable designs in relation to buildings refer to construction of those building which are certified as “green” buildings. The term “green” means that those buildings are constructed in such a manner that they are aligned with ecological and environmental aftereffects. LEED is a certificate that is awarded to those buildings which are constructed under the applicable codes and standards of the LEED. The sustainable elements that are used in the projects are skylight system, electric car charge stations and light rail systems as the basic elements of sustainable design of the buildings. Skylight system is introduced to illuminate the halls, electric charge station is developed to minimize fuel consumption and light rail system is built to facilitate the transportation. The main hurdle during the design of these environmental friendly building is that large number of human capital is required as no individual can complete the task of designing such sustainable buildings all alone. This problem can be resolved by developing different teams pertaining to specific areas of the project and a leader monitors the performances of the teams. The role of civil engineer is of very key nature as his/her responsibility includes the consulting and designing. Moreover, he/she needs to carry out those steps which help in gelling up the team into one unit and perform the duties in such a manner that sheer excellence, perfection, safety and sustainability is reflected from the work of civil engineer. Homework 6 1. Do you think professional organizations are necessary? Professional organizations are very necessary because they provide many benefits to the individuals. They provide exposure to the individual, information, ideas and techniques to perform a job efficiently, they groom the individuals, they help establish contacts among the individuals etc. 2. What does lifelong learning mean to you? Can a student or professional organization foster and promote this kind of learning atmosphere? Why or Why not? Provide at least one specific example to reinforce your opinion. Lifelong learning is a concept of learning in which an individual keeps on learning till end of his/her life. To be very specific, till the last day he/she is somehow attached with the organization. The organization teaches the individual through on-job, off-job training, experiences of other colleagues and the outside information that flows into the organization. As a result, the individual keeps learning in the life related to the organization. 3. Describe the mission and objective of at least one of the organizations that presented to our class. This mission provides an insight to engineers, engineering students and future potential engineers to promote the links, collaborations and connections to those communities who are deprived of the qualities of life. Those connections can improve the quality of lives of those communities worldwide by better education, training, experience and implementation of engineering projects that are sustainable. 4. If you were in charge of membership how you would encourage young professionals to get involved in the organization? For example would you have more community service projects, to reach members via social networking or provide educational presentation? If I would be the in-charge of the membership, I would have encouraged the individuals by providing them the opportunity to use the social networking as a platform to dispatch their voices to those who are ignorant of these facts. When those young professionals are provided the autonomy to say what they have in their mind, this particular thing would bring them towards meeting the primary goals of professional organization which develops on the basis of fresh ideas and new thoughts. Visit to Contech Constructions Inc. This week, we visited Contech Construction Products Inc where we were greeted by the most talented and magnificent hosts. They were the well known engineers of the Contech Constructions Products. Andrea Simescu, who was the Training and Senior Designing Engineer for storm water products, Gretchen who was the field monitor for the storm water systems and finally Christina Totland, who was the mechanical engineer having wide variety of experience primarily in truck lifts designing, she’s also working to attain the professional engineer license. These professional engineers has influenced my way of learning and made me aware of the fact that how much our daily routine varies due to engineering. Christina told that every new day her daily routine differed which included designing, meeting with different people, negotiating, attending meetings etc. There isn’t a single structural routine to spend every other day. Contech Constructions Products works with wide range of companies and it is not possible to mention each of them. But the major public agencies with which Contech works are mainly territories, cities and countries to which Contech sell its products. In Portland city, Contech is the primary supplier for the products related to storm water systems. This unique reason with which Contech came to Portland was quite surprising. There is an interesting environment of Contech’s office which is located in Portland. Its structure is more like an engineering office but it is also comprised of laboratories within the premises of the building for the testing of the products- we in actual watched and visited one such laboratory. The most sustainable practice of Contech is rainwater harvesting which included the whole process from pre-treatment, disinfection and pumping etc. Contech is now doing experiments with bio-filters which use the soils from Earth in order to filter the storm water. Contech has more than 50 manufacturing plants and more than 2000 products which are marketed and sold all over the world. Safety is the primary concern for the company and they provide huge attention to this. Contech sends its products for testing before selling it to the final customer. Overall, the experience was rather enjoyable as I was highly interested in knowing that where the structures of bridges and storm water systems are developed before putting them into the final place. The experience provided immense amount of practical knowledge and proved to be helpful for understanding. Field Trip to Portland State University Campus The field trip that was conducted this week was taken place at the heart of the Portland State University Campus. The trip was guided and led by the environmental engineer Scott Wells. We visited various classes and labs which offer different Civil Engineering programs. He took us to different labs and briefly described us about their purposes and activities which are conducted over there. Some major labs included environmental labs, geotechnical labs, transportation lab, surveying labs, destructive labs, chemical research labs and material labs etc. Each lab was operated under the guidance of graduate who interacted with us and told us about the daily regime. The most common tasks included computer codes, computer work, strength testing, computer simulations, material testing and much more. The most interesting fact was that the Portland University students are working on international projects for the countries such as Dead Sea project in Israel. Another interesting fact was the assistance of the students for the overdesigning of the buildings. The most outstanding fact was that the overdesigning helped in standing the buildings against the repercussions of earthquakes. The environmental system that the university had set up for its building re-circulates the filtered rainwater throughout the toilets of the building. This is one example of the numerous sustainable practices that are being held at the campus of Portland. According to Dr. Wells, “Safety is the number one concern when working with students”. In engineering labs of Portland University the number one concern is safety and anything pertaining to the safety is not taken lightly at all. This tour motivated me even more to pursue my career as civil engineer. Experiencing this tour provided me insights to move forth as a civil engineer as I saw and touched the materials and labs in which I will be in a very near future. I loved to spend my precious time on such knowledgeable and experience gaining tour. Educational Tour to David Evans and Associates Inc-DEA David Evans and Associates Inc. is located on the beautiful south waterfront in Portland. DEA (David Evans and Associates Inc) is a civil engineering office occupying 8 flours of the building. Every floor of the corporate building represents a different discipline. This corporate office is in charge of all the DEA activities being conducted all over the U.S. Stewardship is the key principle of DEA. Joshen Rohani led us throughout the journey who was masters in long range planning and transportation. Accompanying him was the traffic projections associate Angela Rogge. Instead of initiating and guiding us, Joe decided to answer our questions and guide the presentations. Numerous projects in Orleans are governed under DEA which is in charge of TriMet PMLR Project, the Colombia River Crossing, the Sellwood bridge project, an interchange highway in Portland. The daily activities if Joe’s life included meeting with people, finding new and better business deals and opportunities etc. Like every other engineer, the day to day activities of Joe varies. Many students provided with comments that the atmosphere of workplace is far more relaxing and friendly than other places that we have visited so far. In my mind, this comment highlights the values and ethical culture of DEA perfectly. The company is totally employee oriented and they make sure that employee perform brilliantly while enjoying working at the same time. Visiting DEA proved to be very beneficial for me as it provided me insights for letting me know whether this career is suitable for me or not. References CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Workplace Safety & Health Tips”. Last modified May 10, 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/stats.html Read More