United Kingdom sets 80dB for making hearing protectors available
Prohibits employee exposures above 87dB
Excessive and prolonged exposure to loud noise in the workplace can cause workers to be susceptible to cases of industrial deafness. According to the Health and Safety Executive (United Kingdom) more than one million U.K. employees are currently at risk of suffering from future industrial deafness due to the conditions in which they currently work.
The HSE set out to apply a policy to companies that would help to protect the hearing of their employees and part of that is the implementation of lower and upper noise levels guidelines. The lower exposure action level set out to employers by the Health and Safety Executive is an 80dB weekly or daily exposure level.