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Article: Noise may endanger employees' health. (Workplace).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- April 1, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For most office workers today, the dream of the big corner office is far cry from reality. Instead, current trends in office design have relegated 25,000,000 Americans to open-plan office space, or "cube farms," where a sense of teamwork and camaraderie may flourish--but noise distractions and potential health hazards do so as well. According to a Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., study, working in a moderately noisy office with ringing telephones, worker conversations, the sounds of office equipment whirring, and drawers opening and closing may lead to heart disease since workplace noise causes heart-damaging stress hormones to become elevated.
"Open-plan space ...