My kids went to a school disco Saturday night and came home deaf - they still have slight ringing in the ears this morning. This prompted me to have a look at noise level exposure limits.

What does this mean in laymans terms:

(1) The lower exposure action values are—
(a) a daily or weekly personal noise exposure of 80 dB (A-weighted); and
(b) a peak sound pressure of 135 dB (C-weighted).

Whats (A-weighted mean)?
Whats (C- weighted mean)?

How does the law apply at discos particularly for children under the age of 18 who go of their own free will and for school staff working during the 4 hours the disco ran for?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rich

Have a look at HSG 260 "Sound Advice"

Good advice so far, and as Pikeman has pointed out, the control of noise at work regs only concerns itself with people at work so therfore parents and children would not be covered.

However, under the Health and Safety at Work Act the school still has duty of care to take action if noise creates a risk to people other than workers, and where people are likely to be exposed to noise risk by the disco, they need to do what is reasonably practicable to safeguard their health and safety.

Back to the old chestnut of whats reasonably practicable for whats generally a noisy activity.

Things to consider?

Adjust the volume to a sensible level (so you can hear the fire alarm)?
Prevent children from standing directly in front of the speakers?
Keep the exposure time to a minimum?
Have a quiet area for children to go to?

My 2p worth.

Thanks to all of you who have answered my original post - all good stuff.

Merry Xmas to all and a happy new year.

Rich

Over 4 hours @ 90dB daily exposure would be 87dB and a breech of the regs (for staff)!
I picked 90dB which is really not very loud, Google 'sound comparison charts' but ensure scale is dB(A), I am sure it would be louder than this.

Oh next year - download a sound meter app on your smart phone and you can see how loud it is - bring on the 'fun police' :)

Some of the posters here don't seem to understand the difference between a temporary threshold shift and noise induced hearing loss - we need to be carefull when giving noise advice.

The fact is, unless it is a noise with generates a huge amount of noise pressure (eg a gunshot), a one off or short duration exposure to noise will probably not damage hearing.

The regs state:- "There are also levels of noise exposure which must not be exceeded. These are called exposure limit values:

daily or weekly exposure of 87 dB;
peak sound pressure of 140 dB."

Notice that the 87 dB level is an 8 hour or 40 hour, whereas the peak sound pressure is 140 dB!