Noise and Vibration Risk Assessments

What do the regulations require you to do?
The two sets of regulations: Control of Noise at Work and Control of Vibration at Work require employers to prevent or reduce risks to health and safety from exposure to noise and/or vibration at work.

You are required to:

• Assess the risks to your employees from noise/vibration at work
• Reduce the noise/vibration source that produces those risks;
• Provide your employees with hearing protection if you cannot reduce the noise exposure using other methods;
• Make sure the legal limits are not exceeded;
• Provide your employees with information, instruction and training , and carry out health surveillance where there is a risk to health.

Do you need a noise risk assessment?
This will depend on how loud the noise is and how long people are exposed to it. As a simple guide it will probably be necessary if any of the following apply:

• 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 m apart for at least part of the day?
• Do your employees use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour each day?
• Do you work in a noisy industry, eg construction, demolition; woodworking; plastics processing; engineering; general fabrication; forging, pressing or stamping; paper or board making?
• Are there noises due to impacts such as hammering, drop forging, pneumatic impact tools etc?

Do you need a vibration risk assessment?
Yes, if your employees have tasks that involve regular and frequent use of:

• hand-held power tools;
• hand-guided powered equipment;
• powered machines which process hand-held materials

Give HSE's pocket card Protect your hearing or lose it! to your employees to remind them to wear their hearing protection. You can also order copies from HSE Books.

Dust and Fume Surveys

What does the law require?
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (CoSHH) Regulations require employers to prevent worker exposure to hazardous substances or, where this is not reasonably practicable, to ensure adequate control.

Examples include - solder fume; welding fume; wood dust; diesel fumes; silica in sand or cement.

Employees are required to make full and proper use of the control measures provided and to report any
defects in them promptly to their employer.

Assessing the risks to health from dust and fume
To assess the risks from exposure to dust and fume you need answers to such questions as:

• Who is exposed and to what?
• To how much and for how long?
• From where?
• How is dust and fume controlled?