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Vladimír Špidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, today hailed the launch of the Europe-wide "Stop that Noise" campaign aimed at raising awareness of the risks of excessive noise at work. New EU rules will set a new, lower limit of 87 decibels for workers' daily exposure to noise from next year.
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More than 13 million workers, not only in heavy industry but also in sectors such as services, education and entertainment, are thought to have suffered impaired hearing at work. Commissioner Špidla said: "Noise goes beyond hearing problems. It can cause accidents at work and increase stress levels. It is a growing concern all over Europe, in workplaces from factories and farms to schools and call centres. The new EU directive, to be implemented in all Member States by February 2006, reduces the levels of noise to which workers can be exposed and requires employers to eliminate or reduce to a minimum the risks."
The 2003 Noise Directive lays down minimum requirements for the protection of workers from health and safety risks, in particular to hearing, from exposure to noise. It repeals the 1986 Noise Directive and reduces by five decibels the exposure levels at which action must be taken. It requires noise levels to be assessed where workers are likely to be exposed to risks, the risks to be eliminated at source or reduced to a minimum, health surveillance to be carried out where risk assessment indicates a risk to health and individual hearing protection to be made available to workers if risks arising from noise exposure cannot be prevented by other means.
Nearly a third of Europe's 160 million workers (in the former EU15) are exposed to high levels of noise for more than a quarter of their working time. Almost 40 million workers (equivalent to the population of Spain) have to raise their voices above normal conversational levels to be heard for at least half of their working hours. Noise-induced hearing loss has been recognised by the World Health Organisation as "the most prevalent, irreversible industrial disease". Hearing loss may not only prevent someone from working to their full potential; it can also destroy their social life and isolate them from the community around them. The Stop that Noise campaign, run by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, is part of the Community Strategy for Heath and Safety at Work for 2002-2006 and will culminate in a dedicated European Week from 24 to 28 October this year.
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