Conducting A Noise Assessment At A Work Place

By Tiffany Gill

Noise above a particular level can cause hearing problems to people exposed to it and even deafness in severe cases. Numerous people working for different organizations or companies may be affected to this hazard and they are not aware of it only to find later that they are diagnosed with hearing conditions. The state provides acts which aim at protecting people from such conditions apart from this; different workplaces nowadays decide to conduct a noise assessment to determine how worse the problem is.

For companies taking the assessment for the first time they will need to first identify the source of the problem. At this level, persons who can conduct the assessment to identify the hazard include; a supervisor, manager, health and safety representative and even an employee. Technical expertise is not warranted at this stage or basic recognition of the source.

The evaluator thus prepares a worksheet that contains questions that will be asked during the process. Methods that may be used to collect the data include checklists, observations, and interviews among other methods. The worksheet starts with inquiring about the hazard source. In many work places it may be from a compressor, a photocopier, machines, conveyor, radio, power tools and many other numerous sources.

The next thing that will need to be determined is the persons most affected by the hazard. This should be indicated in the worksheet and also a map of the work area that will be provided for the process. After this is established next will be measuring the level of loudness of the sound. A discordance meter is used in this process. If it shows that the level is below 75 db, this is an acceptable level. However, any level above this causes harm to workers.

One this is done, an evaluator then assess the interim measures taken at the place to counter the effects of the sound levels. Most companies do offer the employees hearing protection control units. If the workers still complain about the sound levels affecting them then this means that these interim measures are not working effectively.

From this point, the assessment proceeds. During this step, an evaluator needs to take precise measurements in order to find out level of exposure to the employee. A more advanced instrument such as the noise dosimeter is used. An evaluator using this equipment ought to have been trained well in order to use all the features of the instrument appropriately and interpret data well. At this level people around the work place should be involved in the assessment process.

When the measures implemented during the second stage still do not work, an organization will need to get specialized help. This would mean that they contact an external discordance consultant who can assess the risk better and propose measures to be implemented to curb the problem. Such a consultant will need to work with a small team of persons the organization. His measures of data collection are complex to yield better results.

When the noise assessment is complete, the consultant prepares a report about his evaluations. The report does contain the different sources of loud sound and measures that should be taken to minimize this. The management is then required to implement the recommendations proposed by the report and still monitor to see if the recommendations worked or not.

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