Noise

Regular, frequent exposure to high noise levels causes deafness or tinnitus (permanent ringing in the ears). Hearing loss can be either temporary or permanent, but  what is known is that the longer the exposure and the higher the noise level, the greater the degree of hearing loss.

General construction site noise usually comes from machinery used for demolition, excavation or piling work and from compressors and concrete mixers etc.

Workers who are most at risk are those who use tools such as concrete breakers, pokers and compactors, sanders, grinders and disc cutters, hammer drills, chipping hammers, chainsaws, cartridge-operated tools, scabblers or needle guns.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 set legal limits on the levels of noise to which workers may be exposed.

To comply with the exposure limits you must ensure that your workers’ noise exposure, reduced by an appropriate factor if they are using personal hearing protection, is not above:

• 87 decibels for daily or weekly personal noise exposure (LEP,d or LEP,w); and
• 140 decibels for peak sound pressure (LCpeak).

However complying with exposure limits is only one aspect of the Employers legal duties under the Noise Regulations. There is an ongoing duty to reduce risks from noise to as low as is reasonably practicable.

It is the users responsibility to:

• Assess the noise risk to workers from plant, machinery and tools;.
• Eliminate and reduce the noise at source by modifying working methods, choosing alternative equipment, or by other technical means; and
• Provide hearing protection to deal with any risk from noise after you have taken steps to eliminate and reduce any noise risk by other means.

As the supplier of equipment for use on site it is Togas responsibility to:

• Ensure that any equipment delivered for hire includes information on the noise that that equipment produces.
• Continually evaluate the relative noise levels of alternative equipment when selecting equipment for our fleet.
• Ensure that our equipment is maintained in good working order. 

Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0

HSE Website Links

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/healthtopics/noise.htm

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/

At TOGA Hire Centres, we take Health and Safety matters very seriously and hope that these fact sheets are of help. However, we must stress that these guidelines are not intended to be fully comprehensive instructions and the customer should, of course, be aware that it is their responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their staff at all times.