Introduction

For some years now, BEDA has provided detailed guidance on noise at work for the managers of late night venues. The intention being to encourage operators to take on board their responsibilities and work closely with their regulators. The guidance is widely recognised within the industry as the primary reference work with several thousand copies distributed.

Existing Good Practice

Operators are expected to take action in a number of areas:

• Regulatory requirements - 'action levels', assessment, hearing protection, apparatus maintenance, and employee information and training provision
  
  
• Training & Information - Provided for all employees, raise awareness of regulations, training in use of equipment and hearing protection apparatus and training record maintained
  
  
• Noise Assessment - Appointment of competent person, maximum permitted volume levels set for all sound equipment, management responsible for compliance with maximum level and noise assessment record sheet maintained
  
  

Current Experience

The current noise legislation allows clubs, bars, music events, etc to operate without too many problems. However, the EU's introduction of a new directive on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise) might well cause us problems.

While the Directive is aimed at noise produced in industrial/commercial environments where that noise is undesirable and unnecessary it will impact on the entertainment industry where the noise produced is actually the music that drives our venues.

In situations were the primary aim is to provide musical entertainment to members of the public, the proposed Noise Directive will make it very difficult to produce the necessary sound levels to create the atmosphere and excitement required.

Where music is provided for dancing, the sound levels need to be of a certain level for the public to enjoy the experience, this is certainly true for young persons and modern music. In a small scale, non-scientific investigation it was found that young people do not dance below a level of 105 dB(A).

Conclusion

The late night entertainment industry already adopts a responsible approach towards the health and safety of our employees. However, the level of protection must be set at a point that can win the support of operators, customers and employees alike.

This directive appears to take the precautionary principle way beyond the level justified by the science. It would place an unreasonable burden on operators, most of whom are small firms. Furthermore, the proposals could prompt either large scale evasion or a dilution of the late night entertainment experience to the point were it no longer becomes attractive to the public.