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Health and safety regulations
enable first aid to be given to employees if they are injured or become ill at
work. These regulations apply to all workplaces including those with five or
fewer employees and to the self-employed.
The Noise at Work Regulations 1989 and various other regulations apply to
noise or include specific provisions on it, including: the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; the Provision and Use of Work Equipment
Regulations 1998 and the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992.
A new Directive on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding
exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise), which
will repeal Directive 86/188/EEC, was adopted in early December 2002. On
15 February 2003 the Directive came into force and the UK has three years to
implement the requirements of it. The main aspects relate to the reduction in
the trigger levels, that is, from 85dB(A) to 80dB(A) for making protection
available and from 90dB(A) to 85dB(A) for hearing protection to be worn.
Pressure Equipment Regulations 1999 cover a wide range of equipment such
as, reaction vessels, pressurized storage containers, heat exchangers, shell and
water tube boilers, industrial pipework, safety devices and pressure accessories.
The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 require all UK manu-
facturers and suppliers of new machinery to make sure that the machinery
which they supply is safe. They also require manufacturers to make sure that:
• machinery meets relevant essential health and safety requirements (these
are listed in detail in the regulations), which include the provision of suffi-
cient instructions;
• a technical file for the machinery has been drawn up;
• there is a ‘declaration of conformity’ (or in some cases a ‘declaration of
incorporation’) for the machinery;
• there is ‘CE’ marking affixed to the machinery (unless it comes with a
declaration of incorporation).

Publications

Websites for locating Health and Safety Regulations and publications are:
legislation.hmso.gov.uk
hse.gov.uk
hsebooks.co.uk
rospa.co.uk

The address for Health and Safety Executive publications is:

HSE Books,
PO Box 1999, Sudbury,
Suffolk CO10 2WA, UK.