Why use a health and safety consultancy like Envex?
The new Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 call for the use of ‘expert intermediaries’ meaning an employer should rely on competent third parties where they themselves are not competent for the relevant aspect of noise in the workplace. Noise assessment can be very complex and you need the right combination of training and experience to be considered as competent. Envex’s consultants include members of the Institute of Occupational Hygienists, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the Institute of Acoustics. Consultants such as those at Envex use only modern, data logging sound level meters. Old sound level meters or very simple units give only an instantaneous level of noise in decibels, which makes it difficult to look at the value on the display and assess an average value. This problem is compounded by the fact that machine noise that sounds ‘steady’ to the ear can vary by 3dB. A 3dB increase is a 100 per cent increase in noise energy, meaning that large erro
