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Industrial & Noise Protection

Health effects

The health effects of noise at work

Noise at work can cause hearing loss that can be temporary or permanent. People often experience temporary deafness after leaving a noisy place. Although hearing recovers within a few hours, this should not be ignored. It is a sign that if you continue to be exposed to the noise your hearing could be permanently damaged. Permanent hearing damage can be caused immediately by sudden, extremely loud, explosive noises, eg from guns or cartridge-operated machines.

But hearing loss is usually gradual because of prolonged exposure to noise. It may only be when damage caused by noise over the years combines with hearing loss due to ageing that people realise how deaf they have become. This may mean their family complains about the television being too loud, they cannot keep up with conversations in a group, or they have trouble using the telephone. Eventually everything becomes muffled and people find it difficult to catch sounds like 't', 'd' and 's', so they confuse similar words.

Hearing loss is not the only problem. People may develop tinnitus (ringing, whistling, buzzing or humming in the ears), a distressing condition which can lead to disturbed sleep.

Remember: Young people can be damaged as easily as the old.

Noise levels

What are the action levels and limit values?

The Noise Regulations require you to take specific action at certain action values. These relate to:

  • The levels of exposure to noise of your employees averaged over a working day or week; and
  • The maximum noise (peak sound pressure) to which employees are exposed in a working day

The values are:

  • Lower exposure action values:
    • Daily or weekly exposure of 80 dB;
    • Peak sound pressure of 135 dB;
  • Upper exposure action values:
    • Daily or weekly exposure of 85 dB;
    • Peak sound pressure of 137 dB

There are also levels of noise exposure which must not be exceeded. These are called exposure limit values:

  • Daily or weekly exposure of 87 dB;
  • Peak sound pressure of 140 dB