Has Covid-19 changed your operations? You must change your noise risk assessment

7th September 2020

If you have made changes to employees, shift patterns, hours of work, machinery used or other operational issues, then you will need to redo your Noise Risk Assessments.

It is inevitable that some industries make noise. The normal operations of manufacturing something or carrying out construction can often exceed the noise limits. We all know that the way we work at the moment has changed. For instance, people are working less shifts but for longer hours, and now the way we measure, and monitor noise has to change too.

The Noise Regulations state that your noise risk assessment should be done every two years. But also, that it must be redone every time you make a significant change to the workplace such as moving machinery about, changing hours of operations, or altering shift patterns.

'Given the current coronavirus situation we are finding that many companies think they don’t have to measure noise at all,' said Simon Rehill, general manager at Pulsar Instruments.

'While measuring noise might be further down the list of priorities than normal, the health and safety legislation still applies,' he said. 'We know of companies where staff have changed from working five days of 8-hour shifts, to three days of 12 hour-shifts. Resulting in the noise exposure of staff changing from just on the limits of the lower exposure value of 80dB(A) to 82 or 83dB(A) – about half as much noise again. This puts staff at increasing risk of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss,' Simon added.

infographic noise

Whilst there is some empathy from the HSE, an HSE inspector has recently confirmed to Pulsar Instruments that yes, the regulations still very much apply, and inspections will continue even though inspectors are taking a bit longer to get through the existing and new work at present.

The good news is that with Pulsar Instruments noise measurement solutions and outstanding software it is incredibly easy for Health and Safety staff to carry our noise assessments themselves.

We can show you how - join a free group demo

Pulsar Instruments is offering a series of FREE no-obligation online demos of sound level meters and the software. We will show you how to take measurements, and then we will show you how to create a compliant Noise Report in a few easy steps. Our next one is planned 23 September 2020. Contact us to book your place [email protected]

Our meters are time saving and easy to use

The Pulsar Nova Sound Level Meter is perfect for all manner of noise measurement applications including:

occupational and industrial hygiene noise assessments
noise at work surveys and noise exposure calculations
hearing protection selection using HML or octave band methods
machinery noise tests
noise ordinance, and
general noise level testing.

It is simple to use and saves time. For all Health and Safety Managers, monitoring noise is just one element of their job; however, they need to be able to measure sound and advise correctly, the Pulsar Nova allows them to do just that.

It allows the simultaneous collection and collation of all noise measurement data including LAeq, Cpeak and C-A for the HML method of hearing protection calculation. This data can be downloaded via the Pulsar AnalyzerPlus software.

Create compliant reports in just a few clicks

The outstanding AnalyzerPlus software, provided as standard, allows users to create a variety of reports quickly and easily. This software is supplied with all of Pulsar’s instruments including noise level meters and noise dosemeters. The software makes the report writing process much quicker as it plots graphs for you and eliminates the need for tricky calculations, for example it calculates the estimated exposure levels which make H&S managers lives much simpler.

The Pulsar Nova also boasts a simple keypad operation and high-resolution colour OLED screen which simplifies the use of the instruments and makes viewing the noise results a lot easier indoors or outside. The user can see the noise measurement results on their screen whilst measuring – for someone to see the results immediately and simply makes understanding what is going on so much easier.

Valuable piece of equipment

“Whilst the effect of noise is a subject that is rarely considered by individuals day-to-day, noise, is a common workplace hazard that in numerous cases goes undetected until it’s too late” Simon comments. “By ensuring regular noise surveys and measurements are carried out it allows the adequate preventative actions to take place” he adds.

Nova sound level meters are available with start/stop timers, microphone extension cables and tripods if social distancing during noise measurements is required. Or, if you prefer we also have a range of noise dosemeters too.