The employer’s obligations for noise safety
Employers are responsible for noise safety in their workplace and the basis of it is generally the noise assessment.
Initial obligation for a noise assessment
If an employer has reason to believe the noise levels may be approaching 80 dB(A) then they have a requirement to do a noise assessment - the actual measuring of the noise risk to work out what daily exposure levels actually are.
There are a few sources of information on this such as known machine noise levels from manufacturers, or things like having to raise your voice to speak to someone.
Read more on how to decide if you need a noise assessment
If your noise assessment shows the levels to be below 80 dB(A) then you have confirmed the absence of risk and nothing further is needed.
Levels of 80 to 84 dB(A) OR 135 to 136 dB(C)
If your noise assessment shows levels meet either the dB(A) or dB(C) limits then you must:
Inform employees of this.
Select appropriate hearing protection.
Make it available to them but they can choose if they want to wear it.
Train them about noise safety.
Levels of 85 dB(A) OR 137 dB(C) and above
If the noise assessment shows levels meet either one of these two figures, or are above them, then the employer must:
Inform employees of this.
Do what you can to reduce noise exposure levels.
Select appropriate hearing protection.
Make use of the hearing protection mandatory for anyone working in the high noise risk area.
Have systems for monitoring compliance with the hearing protection and enforcing use.
Train them about noise safety.
Signs must be up warning people.
Hearing testing must be provided on an ongoing basis.
Average dB(A) is important
It is important to flag that it is the average dB(A) which is important, not individual instances of exceeding it. For example, someone may work in an office and use a hand dryer in the loo. That dryer could easily give a blast of ≈95 dB(A), well over the 85 dB(A) limit, but the exposure time is very short so it will not be an issue.
The noise assessment looks at both how loud it is but also how often that exposure takes place and for how long.
