Noise tables

According to the Noise and Vibration OSH Ordinance, the business owner must check during risk assessment whether employees are or could be exposed to noise or vibration. In doing so, he can resort, for instance, to information from the machine manufacturer, to his own experience or to databases. Measurement is only necessary if he is unable to establish compliance with the action values cited in the ordinance beyond doubt.

The Swiss Accident Insurance (Suva) has compiled an extremely detailed database containing details of noise levels. The General Noise Tables are broken down according to branch of industry and present typical exposure values for the machines used and activities performed there. The tables are available via the Internet and can be downloaded (in German, at Suva’s homepage, search for “Lärmtabelle”).

A noise source catalogue describing the situation in the iron and metalworking industry in the Seventies is available in the form of a brochure entitled “Lärmquellen der Eisen- und Metallindustrie” (in German). This is targeted mainly at the social accident insurance institutions and can be used, for example, for determining noise exposures over historic periods in cases of noise-induced partial deafness.