If you have been following the Dutch news lately, you might know: hearing damage among young people is increasing significantly. In anticipation of the recently issued advise of the Health Council, SugarFactory has reviewed its noise plan and introduces a decibel limitation.
To combat both sound disturbance and hearing damage, SugarFactory asked its technical cooperation partner Bazelmans AV to advise on possible noise restrictions during events. This involves random, once-hourly noise measurements.
The peak to the decibel
The noise measurement is based on three parameters, with three different maximum noise values also issued.
The first is the dBA LEQ 15 measurement, which measures the average value over a 15-minute period. This was set at 90 dBA (decibel) for SugarFactory. The second is the dBA LEQ 60 measurement, where Bazelmans AV determined the average decibel over an hour at 95dBA. The peak limit to which the former sugar factory wants its clients to adhere has been set at 100dBA. The peak limit is the maximum value the sound pressure can reach and not tied to a time measurement.
More and more young people with tinnitus
An alarming 54 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds in the Netherlands are at risk of hearing damage. About 10 to 20 per cent of the population is already struggling with (some degree of) tinnitus. To lower that percentage, the Health Council recommends lowering the maximum sound level for amplified music from 103 to 100 decibels. For the time being, this is still just an advice, but the House of Representatives will discuss possible interim measures to prevent hearing damage.
Turning down the volume
At SugarFactory, they are actually happy that more attention is being paid to (too loud) noise. ”As an organisation, we were already getting advice on noise restrictions,” says Denise Schimmel. ”Now that this subject is coming to wider attention, there will also be more understanding of our noise restrictions from clients and suppliers. An event should be enjoyable for everyone and not cause complications afterwards”.
Would you like to know more about the noise restrictions at SugarFactory? Denise Schimmel will be happy to tell you more about the motivations and the plan they drew up with Bazelmans AV.
