Loud noise can prove a real threat to people’s hearing, by causing permanent and disabling damage. It can be both a gradual loss of hearing due to continued exposure to increased noise over time, or a sudden loss due to extremely loud noise. The after-effects of this damage are often not considered by individuals until it is too late, and can negatively impact simple, every-day things like holding a conversation.

The extent of the hearing loss can vary from slight to complete loss, and will often occur over a period of time, but over-exposure to loud noise can also cause tinnitus. This is a condition where you can "hear" a ringing or buzzing sensation in the ears that isn't caused by an outside source. It can be intermittent, but some have to endure it as a constant sensation that can be distracting or even distressing.

Do I have a noise problem at my workplace?

Here are some indicators that there is excessive noise in your workplace, that could be causing damage to the hearing of your employees:

• If your employees have to raise their voices to carry out a conversation when they are standing about 2m apart.
• The noise is intrusive for most of the working day. This includes things like being located near a busy road, or extensive vacuuming.
• There are noises due to impacts (e.g. pneumatic tools), explosive sources (e.g. detonators).
• If noisy power tools or machinery are used by your staff for more than half an hour each day.
• If you work in a sector that has regular noisy tasks, such as construction, demolition, engineering, fabrication etc.

Actions you need to take

If any of the bullet points above apply, it is likely that you need to take some further action. The first step should be to carry out a risk assessment to decide where and what action is needed. Your risk assessment should include the following:

1. Identify whether there is a risk from noise, and who are likely to be affected by it.
2. An estimate of how much noise your employees are exposed to.
3. Include what you need to do in order to comply with the law. Is personal hearing protection required? Or are you already providing a safe working environment?
4. Identify any ‘at risk employees’ who need to undergo regular health checks.

It is important that you record the findings of your risk assessment, as well as noting down any actions you have taken.

Estimating noise exposure levels

In order to make a reliable estimate of how much your workers are exposed to noise, you need to look at several indicators. Firstly, consider how loud the noise is, and how long a person is exposed to the noise in a working day. This gives you their ‘daily personal noise exposure’. Then you need to determine the peak sound pressure levels which workers are exposed to.

When making these calculations, you must not make any allowance for the wearing of personal hearing protection such as earmuffs or earplugs.

Controlling the risks

Once you have identified that there is a risk of noise in the workplace, you need to take action. Employers are required to first take steps to remove or reduce the hazard as much as possible. If the source of the noise cannot be removed, then you could consider the following as steps that could reduce the risk of the noise:

• Using quieter equipment
• Engineer controls to reduce the noise produced at the source
• Use sound-proofing screens or barriers to reduce the movement of the soundwaves
• Limit the time people are spending in noisy areas

You could also look at introducing a warning system that alerts employees when there is a risk of over-exposure to noise.

Once all the possible measures to reduce the risk have been implemented, and there is still a risk present, employers are then required to provide PPE; in this case, hearing protection.

Personal hearing protection

Hearing protection can be issued to employees as either a short-term measure whilst other noise-controlling methods are being created, or when the extra protection is needed. The Noise Regulations require you to:

1. Provide employees with hearing protectors and make sure they are used when noise exposure exceeds the upper levels.
2. Provide employees with hearing protectors if they ask for them, and their exposure is between the lower and upper action levels.
3. Identify hearing protection zones (areas of the workplace where access is restricted & hearing protection is compulsory).

We hope this guide has been useful and helped you to understand the ways in which you can control the risk of noise at work, in order to protect your employees. There are a range of hearing protection products available on our website, with various protection ratings. If you can’t find what you are looking for please contact us on 08455 444 000, or email sales@betafit.com.