Work Environments’ Noise Risk
According to the indications in the Italian Legislative Decree 81/2008 and successive modifications and amendments (Title VIII, Chapter I; Title VIII, Chapter II) the assessment of noise risk and risks related to other physical agents must be intended as a section of the Risk Evaluation document together with the technical report drafted by qualified personnel.
The assessment of noise in the workplace environment
ECO carries out instrumental surveys pursuant to the UNI EN ISO 9612:2011 and UNI 9432:2011 standards for the purpose of enabling the employer to proceed with the noise evaluation during working hours, proceed with the verification, during the preventive and corrective phases, of the daily exposure of personnel to noise in temporary or mobile constructions sites. It is essential to organise a professional acoustic impact evaluation focused on the conditions of a specific workplace.
The data collected in this way is later processed with specific calculation software to determine the level of exposure the personnel undergo daily (Lex,8h), or weekly (Lex,40h), comparing them with the exposure limit values established by law.
The technical report, including potential measurements, must then be kept in the company for the planning and implementation of the preventive and corrective measures and, naturally, made available to supervisory bodies.
INAIL Publication
Below is an extract from the INAIL publication (the Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro, or Italian National Institute for Accident Insurance in the Workplace), entitled “The evaluation of the risk of noise” in 2015, available at the link to the right.
The physical agents represent factors that cause a transformation of the environmental conditions in where they occur. Therefore, their presence determines an input of energy into living and working environments that, in addition to tolerated values, actually can be potentially harmful to human health.
The physical risks contemplated in the Consolidated Act on Safety (Italian Legislative Decree 81/08) concern noise, the mechanical vibrations, the electromagnetic fields, the optical radiations of artificial origins, the microclimate of severe environments, ultrasounds, and hyperbaric atmospheres.
The risks deriving from physical agents in the working environment must be removed, or reduced as much as possible […].