GKS Environmental
Occupational Hygiene Consultants
Services in London & Throughout The UK

There are estimated to be 12,000 cases of noise induced hearing loss in the UK (Labour force survey).

I am passionate about stopping this damage. If an operative has a physical injury due to an accident at work it is noticed immediately and hopefully he or she can avoid that happening again. With noise you don't notice the damage for perhaps 20 years and so the mentality can be to ignore the accident!

There are probably many more unreported cases where the loss is less but still debilitating. Even today we see young men ignoring high noise signs and operating high noise machinery without protection. You can see it in the street if you watch a building worker mostly they don't have hearing protection and what they do have can be very poor quality.

Noise can also be a safety hazard at work by interfering with communication and making any warnings harder to hear.

Points to consider

• Is the noise intrusive – like a busy street, a vacuum cleaner or a crowded restaurant - for most of the working day?
• Do your employees have to raise their voices to carry out a normal conversation when about 2 metres apart?
• Do your employees use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour each day?
• Do you work in a noisy industry such as construction, demolition, road repair, woodworking, plastics processing, engineering, textile manufacture, general fabrication, forging, pressing or stamping, paper or board making, canning or bottling, foundries?
• Are there noises due to impacts (such as hammering, drop forging, pneumatic impact tools etc.), explosive sources such as cartridge-operated tools or detonators, or guns?

How we can help

We will measure the noise in your environment to establish if a problem exists and, if so, the extent of that problem.

We will also advise on addressing any issues, looking at ways to reduce noise exposure rather than just relying on hearing protection.

More Information

Guidance on The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 can be viewed on the HSE website at https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l108.pdf