Ian

If the noisy area is a mandatory hearing protection zone, then anyone working in or passing through the area must wearing hearing protection; that's what mandatory means.

Anyone required to pass through the area can use corded plugs which take seconds to put in and can be worn round their necks until required.

LB

In the spirit of the regulations you need to calculate exposure to the individual NOT the area. That said blanket enforcement zones can be an easy way of ensuring compliance.

You can work out exposure to the person in 2 ways - 1) personal dosimeter, or measure noise levels and then use the HSE noise calculators to estimate exposure.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/calculator.htm

As already said if it is noise that exceeds the limit value then you must protect hearing

I would be looking at the individual personal exposure levels, not a blanket exposure level for the workshop. Work closely with the staff (both the workshop & dispatch) so they all fully understand the assessment & subsequent findings - allowing you to manage expectations.

If you want to make an exception for people who are just passing through you could mark out a walkway and designate the areas outside the walkway as the manadatory hearing protection area.

Interesting how you can guarantee how often people are passing through a mandatory zone, is such a system workable to ensure they are protected from noise levels in this way?

The practical solution bears more weight to enforce and issue hearing protection, even if ear plugs with draw string etc?

Brian the article you provided is an interesting read and and you pointed out it does advise against blanket HPZ for large areas, however this approach can only be realised if employers have the flexability to move or segregate noisey equipment into certain smaller areas with enforced HPZ.

99% of the time organisations cannot do this due to space, so have to live with the larger HPZ. Going back to to the OP, you cannot have a designated HPZ and allow staff to pass thorough because they are only in the area for a short period of time, very quickly you'd find other staff members not wearing hearing protection because 'I was only in the area for a couple of minutes, you let the dispatch staff do it!'

It becomes very messy and impossible to manage effectively....so protect the staff and force the wearing of hearing protection...and protect your employer from claims of NIHL because 'I was never made to wear HP in the mandatory zone!'

guru and MB1

I am not actually in disagreement with either of you, but looking at Kate's suggestion of a designated walk way, and regulation 7 of the Control of Noise at Work Regs, and the HSE research paper I think it would be "possible" to allow this, perhaps if the walkway was to one side of the room and barrier off. However monitoring that those who need the protection I agree could be a nightmare!

This is of course assuming that the noise protection zone has been designated because of an average noise exposure and not a peak sound pressure reading when clearly everyone would need protection regardless of time spent in the room.

Hello Ian,

Where I work it is between 90 - 105dB (A) with mandatory hearing protection being worn in all production areas (we do have extensive sound absorbing booths around all power presses and ancillaries).

What I have found is that you cannot have an exemption for people who occasionally walk through the area as many in the work force will revert to 8 years of age and stop wearing theirs (“I’m not wearing it because they are not”). This is even with extensive training, regular audiomitery etc

If you issue ear plugs I have found that people will walk into the area fitting them “I’m only walking through, I’m in a rush”, so they get no protection.

What I have found works best is to issue ear defenders with the owners name on them (remember 8 years of age “I’m not wearing any because I’ve lost them”); they are easy to fit, clean etc. If you do this you will not waste months of your life debating the issue with people and you will not have a ‘them and us’ situation.