Noise level safety limits disputed

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 20

Noise level safety limits disputed

PA Wellington Trade union claims that safe noise limits for workplaces are inadequate have been disputed by the Health Department. The New Zealand safety standard for noise is 85 decibels, and above that level employees are required to wear hearing protectors. But the Aucklandbased Trade Union Health and Safety Centre said recently that the correct safe level should be 75 decibels. The centre’s director, Mr Tord Kjellstrom, said that World Health Organisation reports showed that one in 10 workers would suffer severe hearing loss after a lifetime of work exposed to 85 decibels of noise.

“The reason why the Government safety standard has not been improved is that employers complain that it will cost too much, without ever providing figures on how much the actual cost would be,” he said. “Deaf Awareness Week should remind us not only of the plight of the deaf, but also of the need for better protection of workers against deafening noise at work.”

The Health Department’s deputy director of public health, Dr John Stoke, said that New Zealand had one of the strictest noise standards in the world. Many other countries had imposed

the higher level of 90 decibels.

The standard had been set by the Occupational Health Advisory Committee. Included in the committee were representatives of the Federation of Labour, the Employers’ Federation, the Health and Labour departments, and nurses and doctors.

“It is not a standard to provide 100 per cent protection from all risks,” he said. “We know that people exposed to noise are going to get some damage to hearing over a period of time. We must protect workers to the best of our ability. “But some people will have a minor degree of impairment at noise levels below 85 decibels,” Dr Stoke said.

He said exposure to noise above 85 decibels for eight hours a day would eventually cause permanent hearing damage.

The department was in the middle of a two-year-programme at both district and national level to educate employers and workers on the hazards of noise, and the use of hearing protectors if noise could not be reduced at source. It had also named deafness prevention at work one of its priorities for the 1984-85 year, he said.