The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require employers to act if people in the workplace are exposed to noise above certain levels, either on a daily or weekly basis. Hearing protection is vital across a range of sectors.
The Exposure Action Values and Limit Values for noise are:
- a lower exposure action value of 80dB for personal noise exposure daily or weekly, or peak sound pressure of 137dB; and
- an upper exposure action value of 85dB, or peak sound pressure of 137dB.
Even accounting for reductions from hearing protection, there are also Exposure Limit Values, which the workplace should not exceed.
These are:
- daily or weekly exposure of 87dB; and
- peak sound pressure of 140dB.
It is with the hearing protection of employees in mind that at dB Hearing we’ve developed our NoiseBarrier custom earplugs.
What Does Excessive Noise Sound Like?
Anyone regularly exposed to 80dB or more is at risk of developing industrial deafness.
Commonly used tools such as hand drills routinely reach decibel levels of 98dB.
A chainsaw can measure 115dB.
In entire industries, the noise may be at a consistently high dB range, such as in food manufacture, where, according to research, this can be between 85 and 111dB.
Even outside industry, workers can find themselves in environments where dB ranges are high, such as in bars and restaurants.
To put it in context, normal conversation typically measures up to 66dB.
Prevent or Reduce the Risks
Under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, employers must:
prevent or reduce the risks to health and safety from exposure to noise at work.
For industry good practice, HSE recommends looking at ways of eliminating sources of noise.
These include looking at purchasing quieter equipment, isolating or damping vibrating machinery and positioning it away from workers.
Employers can also work at using sound absorbing materials, and limiting people’s access to noisy areas, or limiting the time they spend there.
However, employers should also make personal hearing protection available where noise levels are between the lower and upper action values – 80 to 85dB.
Effective Hearing Protection
Earplugs can be a solution to hearing protection to the workplace, but not all earplugs are equal, and some are less effective than others. In fact, some earplugs can themselves pose a health and safety risk.
Standard, unfiltered earplugs, made of foam, may hamper productivity. This is because they not only block out high noise levels but other noise also.
So, when someone needs to communicate with others, they need to stop what They’re doing and take them out. Their productivity suffers, and They’re then exposed to harmful noise around them.
Foam earplugs are not fitted to a specific ear canal, so their effectiveness can vary from individual to individual.
They may make workers more prone to accidents in the workplace by cutting them off completely from the sound around them, including warnings from others, or even things like traffic noise.
In this situation, you may then find that people in work choose not to wear them, which takes them back to square one and exposure to excessive noise levels.
What is the solution?
Custom, NoiseBarrier earplugs reduce all sound to an approximate speech level through a patented acoustical chamber.
Crucially, they mean the wearer can continue to hear and carry on conversations while wearing them.
They mean that workers wearing them benefit from effective hearing protection without compromising any other safety aspects which would depend on them being able to hear properly.
“Anyone looking to invest long-term in noise protection in the workplace should think about personal hearing protection and the benefits it brings.”
Paul Thorpe, Laboratory Manager, dB Hearing
Contact Us
Are you doing enough for hearing protection in your workplace? Contact dB Hearing to find out more about NoiseBarrier.
