Noise

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Legislation is an important driver for health and safety, and sets out the key priority areas for industry to work on. Changes are expected with regard to legislation that directly impacts upon the construction industry.

Driven partly by Europe and partly by the Health and Safety Commission's desire to make some existing legislation more effective, several new sets of regulations and a Regulatory Reform Order will be introduced during 2005 and 2006. Use the dropdown for more information on legislation.

For further information on legislation and how it affects you and your business, contact the Health and Safety Executive.


		Noise

		The existing Noise at Work Regulations 1989 will be replaced by new regulations which will come into force in February 2006. The new regulations will look to reduce the level of noise to which people at work may be exposed. Similar to the existing regulations, there will be first and second Action Levels, requiring that certain actions are taken. The new regulations will also introduce an Exposure Limit Value - the maximum level of noise to which any worker may be exposed. A further feature of the new regulations is the right of workers to hearing checks when a risk assessment indicates that their hearing may be at risk due to work-place noise levels.