• Project number: F 2293
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

Purchasing quiet machines by applying noise emission declarations required from manufacturers according to the EC-Machinery Directive leads to a significant reduction of noise exposure of employees. Although this is very well known among experts, noise emission of machinery is ignored in practice when purchasing machines. This applies, although statutory requirements stipulate from employers to choose quiet machinery. The reasons are confusion of the acoustical noise emission quantities with noise exposure ones and the ignorance of the noise reduction potential. In the form of a guideline the required information shall be communicated to purchasers of especially SME in order both to reduce the noise exposure of employees and to motivate machine manufacturers to design quieter machines and provide reliable noise emission declarations.