canopener - Though I've had little involvement with noise and vibration issues in recent years, I generally agree with your comments and suggestions above, including the use of a personal dosemeter. I recall from my latter years with HSE over 25 years ago that HSE occupational hygienists used such devices in workplaces to get accurate measurements of actual noise exposures when helping inspectors to determine if existing personal protection and/or engineering noise control measures were sufficient or not. A similar case can be made for using vibration dose meters now that effective devices have been developed and become available during more recent years.
Alan W H - Hope you are not too fazed by the responses, especially canopener's, to your thread. It can be argued that you have demonstrated competence by recognising the limit of your knowledge and choosing to ask other OS&H people for practical advice and suggestions via this forum. As mentioned above, my own knowledge of noise and vibration issues is admittedly rusty. Therefore, if faced with a noise situation like the one you describe, I'd need to update myself with current legislation, terminology and standards - even though I think I know the basics, i.e. try to reduce noise at source by available practical measures. If such measures are not available or insufficient, there is no little or no option but to rely on suitable PPE and ensure that those to be protected have sufficient understanding of its limitations.
Similar advice applies to various other situations in OS&H and also other professions. For example, many years ago, I asked an HSE medical adviser how he managed to remember all the information he surely needed to know when he previously worked as a general practitioner. His answer seemed very honest because he replied that neither he nor other doctors could expect to know let alone remember everything about the medical conditions which they might encounter as GPs. They should obviously have a good working knowledge of common or critical conditions with which their patients, young and old, might arrive at GP surgeries, and be able to give appropriate advice and/or prescriptions for them, or instigate appropriate action for critical conditions which need urgent attention, e.g. meningitis in young children. As for other conditions, medical skill lay in trying to get appropriate information from or about patients, including samples where appropriate, and then looking up textbooks, discussing with colleagues, etc., with a view to making diagnoses. Gaining sufficient time to do this explains to some extent why GPs tend to give some patients interim advice and tell them to come back within a few days or a week, etc., if their conditions do not clear up. Thus, by the time a patient returns if necessary, the GP has hopefully had time to 'mug up' on possible conditions and appears very knowlegeable about what to do.
As some doctors may get upset if they happen to see the above comments, I'd better stress that they are simplistic ones based on my recollection of what one doctor told me years ago as someone with no medical training, plus comments by some medical friends during the intervening years.