Hearing PPE usage and blood pressure level among grass cutting workers of Alam Flora Sdn Bhd, Putrajaya

Grass cutting activities is regularly carried out as one way to maintain the aesthetic of towns or cities. Workers carrying out the grass cutting are exposed to noise produced from the machines and from the contact of blades with grass. This continuous exposure of workers to the noise of grass cutting put them at risk of developing noiserelated health effects. However, it is still arguable whether noise has any effect on BP. Hearing PPE was designed mainly to prevent hearing impairment due to exposure to noise. Through proper usage of hearing PPE, it can be assumed that workers will have lesser noise exposure. In the present days, there is still lack of studies that provide evidence on the association between noise exposure and human BP level. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate the differences in SBP and DBP among grass cutters of Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd, Putrajaya. The specific objectives of this study were to measure the participants’ SBD and DBP before and after grass cutting operation, to compare the participants’ SBP and DBP between before and after working hours and to compare SBP and DBP level between participants using and without hearing PPE before and after grass cutting operation. A questionnaire was used to identify the usage of hearing PPE among grass cutters as well as the type of hearing PPE BP measurement was carried out according to the guidelines provided by the European Society of Cardiology (2007). For Objective 1, mean value and standard deviation of SBP and DBP was measured for both before and after grass cutting operation and recorded in term of mean value and standard deviation. For Objective 2 and Objective 3, normality tests and inferential tests was implemented to test the hypotheses.