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Employers have a legal duty to prevent damage to the hearing of workers. The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 have recently replaced previous legislation, meeting the requirements of the EU Physical Agents Directive 89/391/EEC. New, lower action values have been created resulting in many activities, producing noise below the previous first action level of the now superseded regulations, now falling within the scope of the new legislation. The new limits are as follows:
*When applying the Exposure Limit Values, account shall be taken of the hearing protection provided by the employer. The regulations require that employers shall, when any employee is likely to be exposed to the Lower Exposure Action Value or above or to the peak action level or above, ensure that a noise assessment is carried out by a competent person. SB Environmental can carry out occupational noise surveys to measure exposure to noise of workers and determine compliance with both the Control of Noise at Work Regulations (2005) currently in force and the impending legislation that is due in the near future. Monitoring techniques include both ambient measurement and personal dosimetry.
Assessment of whole body vibration (WBV) and hand-arm vibration (HAV) in a variety of industrial situations to assess worker exposure and/or characterise equipment to identify problems and establish safe working limits. The requirements for control of occupational exposure to vibration are contained in The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005, and the Approved Codes of Practice L140 (HAVS) and L141 (WBV). There are also requirements relating to the general provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety Regulations, the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 apply. In particular, under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992, manufacturers and suppliers of machinery are obliged to reduce risks to a minimum to provide data on vibration, and information on risks to health and their control. Where there is a likely risk to employees from vibration exposure, employers are required under the vibration regulations to:
The document provides details on exposure values for an eight-hour working day, for both hand-arm vibration and whole-body vibration. In terms of hand-arm vibration, the exposure values are:
The assessment of the level of exposure to vibration is based on the calculation of daily exposure A(8) expressed as equivalent continuous acceleration over an 8 hour period, calculated as the average root mean square (rms) value of the frequency-weighted accelerations, determined on three orthogonal axes (x,y,z) in accordance with ISO 5439.
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