Custom software for noise and vibration exposure per employee
A sound measurement gives the level of a machine. The regulation is concerned with something else: a person's daily exposure, expressed over an eight-hour working day. The same machine gives one employee half a dose and another a full dose, and that difference lies not in the measurement but in how long each person stood beside it.
What the limits are
For noise, the Working Conditions Decree sets two action values and a limit value. Above a daily exposure of 80 dB(A), the employer must make hearing protection available. Above 85 dB(A), wearing it is mandatory. The limit value is 87 dB(A), measured at the ear and therefore including the hearing protection; if it is exceeded, the noise must be brought below that value immediately.
In addition, peak values apply: 135 dB(C) as the lower action value and 137 dB(C) as the upper action value. A peak is not an average and disappears within a daily dose, yet a single blast can cause hearing damage. Both tracks therefore need to be kept side by side.
For vibration, the values are set per type. Hand-arm vibration has an action value of 2.5 and a limit value of 5.0 m/s². Whole-body vibration has an action value of 0.5 and a limit value of 1.15 m/s². For pregnant employees and those with back complaints, 0.25 m/s² applies. These too are daily doses over eight hours, not instantaneous values.
Chapter 6 of the Working Conditions Decree sets out what comes on top of that: assessing and measuring as part of the risk inventory and evaluation, the measures to prevent or limit exposure, audiometric testing, the measures to take when hearing damage is found, and information and instruction. For young people and pregnant employees, there is also a prohibition on working above the limit values, regardless of which measures have been taken.
How we build this
The key is the task. An employee is not exposed to a department but to a series of activities, each with its own level and its own duration.
For each task, the measured or stated level, with its source: an in-house measurement or the supplier's specification.
Who carried out which task, and for how long. The daily dose follows from this, rather than from an assumption about the department.
The system checks the outcome against the action values and the limit value, and shows which obligation applies.
Exceeding a value calls for a measure, and certain levels call for audiometric testing. Both belong in the same file.
What the software actually does
The build-up of the daily dose underpins the whole. What else you need depends on your size and on how variable the work is.
Daily dose per employee
Built up from tasks and durations, not from a departmental average. That is what the standard is about.
Noise and vibration side by side
The same person using the same machine has two doses. They are assessed separately and kept together in view.
Peaks monitored separately
A peak disappears into an average. We keep the peak values as their own track alongside the daily dose.
Origin of every level
An in-house measurement carries different weight from a figure in a manual. Every value records where it came from.
Obligation linked to the outcome
Above the lower action value calls for something different from above the upper one. The system shows which obligation applies to the outcome.
Audiometry in the same file
When research was carried out and what it found, linked to the exposure it relates to.
Who we build for
Who keeps track of this varies by organisation. Four situations.
Occupational health coordinators
They build the substantiation for the risk inventory and will be asked for it when the inspectorate visits.
Health and safety specialists
They see that a department average makes the people with the heaviest tasks invisible.
Production managers
In practice, they decide who stands where and for how long, and therefore who accumulates which dose.
Businesses with fluctuating staffing
Temporary agency workers and flexible rosters make a fixed assumption about exposure unworkable.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
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Standards get revised, machines get replaced and tasks shift. Levels, tasks and assessment rules should be configurable and not hard-coded.
Why Appfront
A level is not a dose
The standard concerns a person's exposure over eight hours. We calculate that from tasks and durations, not from a department average.
The average hides the heaviest task
Someone who spends the whole day on one machine disappears into an average alongside colleagues who rotate. We build per person.
The source of a value matters
Your own measurement and a supplier's specification are not the same evidence. We keep a record of where each value comes from.
We don't take your measurements
Measuring and assessing remains the work of your occupational health and safety specialist. We build the file in which those findings do their job.
Security and privacy
Exposure data can be traced back to individual employees, and the results of audiometric testing are health data. Those two do not belong in the same view for the same people. We separate access: managers see exposure per task and per schedule, the occupational physician sees the testing, and access is logged. Integrations run via secure connections to your existing software.
For this subject, the reliability of the record at the time it was made is the key point. An exposure that is recalculated lower after a complaint is no longer a record. We store doses and their underlying tasks as unalterable entries with timestamp and person, and any correction appears as a visible correction alongside the original entry. How we ourselves handle security is set out in our information security policy.
Frequently asked questions about noise and vibration exposure
Above a daily exposure of 80 dB(A), hearing protection must be available; above 85 dB(A), wearing it is mandatory. The limit value is 87 dB(A), measured at the ear and therefore including the protection worn.
For hand-arm vibration, an action value of 2.5 and a limit value of 5.0 m/s². For whole-body vibration 0.5 and 1.15 m/s², and for pregnant workers and employees with back complaints 0.25 m/s². It always concerns the daily dose over eight hours.
Because the standard is about people. Someone who spends the whole day next to one loud machine accumulates a different dose than a colleague who rotates, even though the measurement is the same.
From your own measurements or from the supplier's specification. Manufacturers must state the vibration level in the manual. Both are usable, but they don't carry the same weight, so we keep the source alongside the value.
We track those as a separate record, with 135 dB(C) as the lower and 137 dB(C) as the upper action value. A peak disappears into a daily dose, whereas a single blow can cause damage.
No. Assessing and measuring remains the responsibility of your occupational health and safety specialist, and the risk inventory remains yours. We build the file in which the outcomes per person become visible and durable, either as a standalone application or as a web application alongside what you already use.
Do you know who in your company has the highest daily dose?
Take one production week and calculate the daily dose for three employees from their own tasks and durations. If that differs from the department average, the average is not sufficient evidence. We build this as a standalone application or as part of a broader custom software development project.
If you prefer to record tasks and durations on the shop floor yourself, have a look at the exposure logging app at the machine.