Does anyone have information on the likely daily noise exposure of a barista operating an espresso machine at a busy coffee outlet? Could it be above an action level? While waiting for my flat white last week I got thinking about one of the HSE's prompts for situations which might require further investigation: "Do employees have to raise their voices to carry out normal conversation when about 2 metres apart for at least part of the working day?"

In my opinion this is too general a question. Different machines will make different noise levels etc also the work is too variable. You would have to get some individual time weighted average exposure measurements. Possibly there might be occasional peak levels which are too high but when you consider that noise dose is usually meausred over 8 or 40 hours, the overall expsoure could well be within the EAV. The only way to know is to measure individual exposures, IMHO. I wonder which is noisier, Starbucks or Costa?

Replace the noisy coffee grinder and use instant coffee instead - problem solved

Thank you all for your comments. I should make it clear that I am only a customer of these outlets, not their safety manager, and my interest was driven by curiosity rather than a need to ensure regulatory compliance and protect the hearing of the baristas. I agree that for many outlets the intermittent nature of the noise will keep the overall exposure in check. However I wonder about those busy outlets in places such as stations and was wondering if any of the forum members had placed an integrating SLM near the ear of a barista at a mainline station to gather some data. it was an interesting point about all the hard surfaces too.