What do they really mean?

Introduction

The EU Physical Agents Directive travelled a long and tortuous path, starting in 1993 as a proposal to deal with a multitude of 'agents', which were noise, vibration, optical radiation and non-optical electromagnetic fields. This idea was short lived due to clear problems with trying to put all that information into one document. In 1999, sense prevailed and the vibration element was split out into a separate directive. In 2001, a proposal for the Noise part was put forward. Whatever happened to the other bits remains a mystery!

Eventually, through committee after committee and draft after draft, we are given the Physical Agents (Noise) and the Physical Agents (Vibration) Directives, with which the member states must lay down legislation within a given time. The Vibration bit is due to become law in June 2005 whilst the Noise Regulations will be with us in April 2006. This should have been February 2006 but the UK Government only now introduces legislation twice a year in April and October! It is the latter that will be dealt with in this article, which looks at some of the main changes and what they mean. It is by no means comprehensive and is no substitute for reading the regulations and guidance in full or attending a training course such as those run by Castle Group Ltd.

The Rub

This legislation is written from the point of view of the HSE, whose primary concern (and rightly so) is with the protection of employees who are exposed to excessive noise levels. What they are not concerned with (and they will happily confirm this, if asked) is civil litigation. In other words, as long as an employer is taking enough action in the eyes of the HSE to prevent people going deaf whilst at work, they will be happy. Fair enough! The problem is that this may well not be enough to mitigate any claims that come along in the future! We will return to this point later.

The bits people don't grasp

Before getting into the bones of the new regulations and simply confusing the reader, it is a good idea to mention some of the fundamental bits that people often find it hard to grasp. For the more advanced, please feel free to skip this section.