Noise Surveys

Noise Surveys

Noise Surveys

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (the ‘Noise Regulations’) requires you to eliminate or reduce risks to health and safety from noise at work. Depending on the level of risk amongst other requirements you should make sure the legal limits on noise exposure are not exceeded.

The Regulations apply where work activities expose people at work (your employees or other workers affected by your work activities) to risks to their health and safety from noise.

You will probably need to do something about the noise if any of the following apply:

  1. The noise is intrusive – for example, as noisy as a busy road, a vacuum cleaner or a crowded restaurant – or worse than intrusive, for most of the working day;
  2. Your employees have to raise their voices to carry out a normal conversation when about 2 m apart for at least part of the day;
  3. Your employees use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour each day;
  4. Your sector is one known to have noisy tasks, eg construction, demolition or road repair; woodworking; plastics processing; engineering; textile manufacture; general fabrication; forging or stamping; paper or board making; canning or bottling; foundries; waste and recycling;
  5. There are noises due to impacts (such as hammering, drop forging, pneumatic impact tools etc), explosive sources such as cartridge-operated tools or detonators, or guns.

If any of these statements apply, it is likely you will need to take some further action. We can carry out a risk assessment to decide what action is needed, and develop a plan to help you comply with the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations and the Noise Regulations.