Hi, I currently do some part time safety advisery work for a professional sports club who have large crowds attending events. The noise prdoduced is variable and does exceed 90db on occasions, with an average ambient of around 75-85db. The employees are only working for somewhere in the region of 90 minutes and exposed to approximately 100 exposures of excessive noise levels, albeit them for very short periods of speaker sound from the sound system, crowd induced noises and the pa announcer. Am basically asking if anyone has any extensive experience in this field of safety and can offer some advise on its management other than just issuing ear protection (which would be impractcable) and removing or reducing the sound which would be almost impossible?? Notices and information is given and I have taken certain measures such as facing speaker systems away from direct sight of employees etc I know a full Risk Assessment will indicate what requirements are required, but I wanted to sound it out before making that call. All advice welcome. Thanks Carl

Carl Have you checked out the Sound Advice pages: http://www.soundadvice.i...gen/22-dec-2008&cr=9 ? LB

I don't have any great experience in the situation you describe, but I would look at the basics if I were you. I am a bit confused with some of your terminolgy but I guess you know what you're up to and assume you're measuring in dB(A), measuring LEQ (average ambient?) and with appropriate (calibrated) kit. Have a look on the HSE website, as they have done most of the hard work for you and I am sure that they have a noise exposure calculator that uses an excel spreadsheet; whack in your measurements, exposure times etc and it should give you a reasonable idea of the LePd and whether you have reached one of the EAVs. You may well find that with the sort of levels and exposure times that you are suggesting, that you may not have as much of a problem as you think. Good luck.

This won't directly help your problem, but does confirm a possible concern. In January I was in US on business and was invited to one of the football games leading up to Super Bowl (and no, I can't reveal to others how to muscle in on such business!). The match was at an indoor stadium and the New Orleans Saints fans deliberately set out to make as much noise as possible during the opposition 'huddles' prior to each play. Some sample pitch-side noise readings were reported in the newspaper next day - all were in the region of 105dB. But as my business was in no way linked to football I'm afraid I can shed no light on how the employers of the various parties exposed assess that hazard or provide controls!

Edit Also worth mentioning, that not all ear defender block out noise completely, you can purchase ones that have a standard noise reduction of 20dB, or even 14dB in some cases, allowing the wearer to still be aware of surrounding noise. I think the ones in mind are called E.A.R Ultrafit?

I had a similar situation where employees were exposed to entertainment noise, in a bar with loud music. Management would not turn down music. Solution was to administratively limit bar staff and rotate duties out of the noise area. Since most of the staff was part time it worked well, but that was based on USA hearing rules, think your standards are more strict. G