Workplace Noise Exposure Checker
Check workplace noise against the exposure standard, when hearing protection and audiometric testing are required under the WHS Regs.
The exposure standard for workplace noise (model WHS Regulations reg 56) is 85 dB(A) averaged over an eight-hour day (LAeq,8h) and 140 dB(C) for peak or impact noise (LC,peak). If either is exceeded the noise is too high and your employer must manage the risk using the hierarchy of controls (reg 57). A rough guide that it may be over the standard: if you have to raise your voice to be heard about a metre away — but that is a prompt to measure, not a measurement. Where workers frequently wear hearing protection to stay within the standard, audiometric (hearing) testing is required within 3 months of starting and at least every 2 years (reg 58).
The workplace noise standard is 85 dB(A) over 8 hours and 140 dB(C) peak.
If either limit is exceeded, the noise is too high and must be controlled. This tool uses rough warning signs to flag when the noise likely needs measuring and managing — it does not measure your noise.
Describe the noise at your workplace
Answer the closest yes/no for each. These are guides, not measurements. Your answers stay in your browser.
The noise likely needs assessment and control
Likely over the standardFrom your answers, the noise is likely around or over the exposure standard, because workers having to raise their voice to be heard about a metre away is a rough sign the noise may be around or over 85 dB(A). The noise should be properly assessed and, if it is over the standard, controlled using the hierarchy of controls. The exposure standard is 85 dB(A) over an eight-hour day and 140 dB(C) for peak/impact noise.
The exposure standard
The exposure standard for noise (model WHS Regulations reg 56) has two limits: an eight-hour equivalent continuous level of 85 dB(A) (LAeq,8h) averaged over an eight-hour day, and a peak level of 140 dB(C) (LC,peak) for sudden or impact noise. If either limit is exceeded the noise is too high, and your employer (the PCBU) must manage the risk so workers are not exposed above the standard.
What your employer should do about it
Where noise is at or over the standard, the employer must manage the risk using the hierarchy of controls (reg 57): first try to eliminate the noise; if not, reduce it at the source — quieter plant and processes, maintenance, isolating or enclosing noisy equipment, barriers and damping, and moving the noise or the worker away. Hearing protection (earmuffs or earplugs) is the last line of defence, not the first, and does not remove the duty to reduce noise at the source so far as is reasonably practicable.
Audiometric (hearing) testing
Audiometric (hearing) testing is required (reg 58) where a worker is frequently required to use hearing protectors to keep within the noise standard — it must be provided within 3 months of starting that work and then at least every 2 years, at the employer's cost. From your answers, workers are not regularly relying on hearing protection, so testing may not be triggered yet — but if hearing protection becomes a regular control, this requirement applies. (Note: reg 58 was omitted then progressively reintroduced in some jurisdictions — check your WHS regulator.)
This is not a measurement
This tool does not measure noise. The "having to raise your voice to be heard about a metre away" test is only a rough guide that the noise may be around or over 85 dB(A) — it is a prompt to get the noise properly assessed, not a measurement. To know whether the exposure standard is actually exceeded, the employer should arrange noise measurement by a competent person.
This is general information about managing workplace noise under work health and safety law, not legal advice, and it does not decide your situation or measure your noise exposure. If you are unsure, or you believe your workplace is not managing noise safely, talk to your health and safety representative, your WHS regulator, your union or a workplace lawyer.
This checker is a guide, not a noise measurement. For a quick run-through of your wider work health and safety duties, try the WHS Quick Check, or browse all the work health and safety tools in the Safety Hub.
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