VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL Acoustics - the Dept. of ...

8.2. PRESENT GUIDELINE: DIRECTIVE 2003/10/EG 129The work place must be indicated with appropriate signalization.Individual hearing protection must be used.Although this legislation is more strict than the older national regulation,the admissible exposure levels are still much higher than the lower limitwhere, at long exposure hearing impairment will occur (this threshold is 80dB). Because of this a new European regulation was introduced with loweraction values : guideline 2003/10/EG.8.2 Present guideline: directive 2003/10/EGThe European guideline 2003/10/EGConcerning the minimum prescriptionson health and safety with regard to the exposure of employees to risks ofphysical agents (noise) was converted into a national legislation on the 16 thof January 2006 (BS 15.02.2006).The law is applicable to employers and employees and includes all activitieswhere employees can be exposed to risks related to noise on theirwork.Two exposure levels that are used as action- and limit values are definedin the legislation :(Daily exposure to noise) (L EX,8h ) (dB(A) re. 20 µPa) : this is thetime weighted average of the levels of exposure to noise on a normalwork day of 8 hours.L EX,8h = L Aeq,Te +10log T eT 0(8.1)whereL Aeq,Te = 10logand T 0 = 28800 seconds.(1T e∫ Te0(pA (t)p 0) 2)(8.2)Weekly exposure to noise (L EX,8h ) : the time weighted average of thedaily levels of exposure to noise in an normal week of five working daysof 8 hours. ( )L w EX,8h = 10log 1m∑10 0.1(L EX,8h) k(8.3)5k=1Three important values are fixed in the legislation :