Community Noise Control
Keep It from Becoming a PR Nightmare
ROBERT N. ANDRES

If you’re a plant engineer, construction supervisor, safety or HR manager, and your facility or operation produces noise that carries beyond your property, chances are very good that you will, at some time, receive a “noise complaint” from nearby residents.

The most common types of environmental/community noise complaints relating to industrial and commercial activity result from:
• Air handling and other equipment, including chillers, fans, blowers, generators, compressors, etc. outside the confines of the building;
• Yard operations, including material handling and the operation of over-the-road or industrial trucks – particularly those with backup alarms;
• Construction vehicles, and related operations – particularly beeper noise; and • Other outside activities or carryover from interior noise.

As soon as you are aware of the complaint, it is very important that you contact the complainant personally to discuss the problem and get his/her perceptions and concerns. Don’t wait to do this – and never treat the issue lightly – as a complaint from one party can turn into a volatile neighborhood issue overnight.

Perform a thorough investigation to determine what the resident is hearing (or thinks they are hearing) and the source of the noise.

Just because the resident does not live nearby doesn’t mean that they are not hearing noise emanating from your property. Noise from a rooftop blower at a facility in Ohio was generating complaints over a mile away – across a rail yard. Low frequency vacuum pump noise at a plant in upstate New York was being heard three miles away.

Even if the sound is not coming from your operation, help the complainant determine where it is originating. Be understanding. Even if you do not find the noise annoying or excessive (or even audible, in some cases), keep in mind that you are looking at it from a different perspective. How you handle the complaint means a great deal. Your patience and understanding will pay off.

Discuss the concern with company personnel who are “engineering oriented” and have control over operations, as soon as possible. The chances are that they are already aware of the condition that has promulgated the complaint and will likely have useful information and ideas.

If you or others in your company cannot identify the source of the noise, or need suggestions for abatement, don’t hesitate to call in a professional noise consultant – a person who has the equipment and expertise to diagnose the problem or problems and recommend a cost-effective solution. You can find one in your area by visiting one of several online websites, such as:

• Institute for Noise Control Engineering (INCE-USA) – Click on “Members” at www.inceusa.org; • Noise Pollution Clearing House – Click on “Quiet Products and Services of NPC Supporters”/Consultants at www.nonoise.org;
• Kinetics Noise Control – Click on “Acoustical Consultants” at www.kin eticsnoise.com.

We caution against “do it yourself” approaches to noise control. Although there are many sources of noise control materials, there are few companies with the knowledge to solve problems – and even fewer who will guarantee satisfaction.

The consultant will generally be in a position to point you in the right direction during initial contact.

Although some projects are costly, noise reduction to an acceptable level need not be an involved or expensive venture:

• That noise problem in Ohio was solved by installing a discharge silencer at a cost of a few thousand dollars. The vacuum pump noise was silenced using new technology, a noise-cancelling exhaust silencer, where a flick of the switch cut the noise level by 60 percent;

• A quarry noise problem, also in Ohio, alarm designed to alert people in a tunnel of imminent conveyor motion had been relocated outside the tunnel because it was too loud. We simply replaced it with a visual alarm (flashing light) inside the tunnel;
• Noise complaints at a brewery in upstate New York were quelled by augmenting the audible backup alarm on front loader with a photocell-controlled strobe for nighttime use – when noise sensitivity is the greatest; • We traced a noise complaint at a Fortune 500 company’s facility to a bad motor bearing on a rooftop ventilation unit; and
• Particularly annoying pure tone backup alarms can be replaced with ambient sensing units that monitor background noise and adjust the output level accordingly; presence-sensing units that sound only when someone or something is detected behind the vehicle in the direction of motion; or “broadband” alarms that produce so-called “pink noise” (whoosh, whoosh) and afford the same or an enhanced degree of safety as a pure-tone unit with less annoying carryover.

More costly noise solutions, such as large noise barrier walls, enclosures or extensive silencing, may well be cost-effective when weighed against legal fees, court costs and negative publicity that may result from inaction.

Over 30 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that community noise degrades the quality of life and creates health issues. To quote the slogan of the Noise Pollution Clearing House, “GOOD NEIGHBORS KEEP THEIR NOISE TO THEMSELVES.” FSM

Robert N. Andres is founder of Oshex Associates, Inc. and principal of Environmental & Safety Associates of Baldwinsville, NY and Naples, Fla., specialists in noise and vibration control, machine/facility safety and machine accident forensics. He is a graduate of Clarkson University, a Certified Safety Professional, Certified Plant Engineer, Board Certified Forensic Examiner and a member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE). He may be reached at esaconsulting@ comcast.net or by calling 1-888- MORE-SAFE (667-3723) or the main office at 1-800-LESS-LOUD (537-7568).