19th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS MADRID, 2-7 SEPTEMBER 2007

DUTCH PRACTICAL GUIDELINE NPR 3438 ERGONOMICS NOISE AT THE WORKPLACE

Determination of the amount of disturbance of communication and concentration

PACS: 43.50.-x Geerligs, Ruud ; Svensson, Carsten 1 SBR, Postbus 1819, NL-3000 BV Rotterdam, The Netherlands, r.geerligs@sbr.nl 2 Saint-Gobain Ecophon AB, P.O. Box 500, SE-260 61 Hyllinge, Sweden,
1 2

carsten.svensson@ecophon.se
Saint-Gobain Ecophon AB, P.O. Box 500, SE-260 61 Hyllinge, Sweden, Marc.janssen@ecophon.se ABSTRACT The new Dutch Practical Guideline (Nederlandse praktijkrichtlijn) NPR 3438 [1] is a revision of the Dutch pre-standard NVN 3438 from 1995 [2]. The pre-standard fulfilled a certain need especially in the field of acoustic ergonomics but was only a temporary guideline. The new practical guideline NPR 3438 has an informative character. NPR 3438 gives target values for the room acoustical environment in relation to disturbance of communication and concentration. It shows acoustic parameters and target values for communication and concentration. The purpose of this guideline is to give directions to building and housing projects and for evaluation and reviewing processes of existing working environments. On the one hand, the content of this guideline aims to provide information on preventing disturbance of communication and concentration and on the other hand to give technical information to experts. The guideline can be used in all types of workplaces like offices, schools, sports halls, hospitals, workshops and industry and applies for allowable sound levels between 35 dB(A) and 80 dB(A). It excludes specially designed rooms or rooms with a desired higher sound level like auditoriums, theatres, cinemas and discotheques. This paper presents an overview of the content of this new practical guideline. 1. INTRODUCTION Acoustic standards and guidelines can be divided in two parts, each with different focus - one with focus on the building and the other on ergonomics. Although both have the human being in mind, the starting point is different. Most standards and guidelines (national and international) are directed on the acoustical quality of the building. The new Dutch practical guideline NPR 3438 has ergonomics as a starting point. 2. DUTCH SITUATION The Dutch Building Decree 2003 includes technical specifications which all buildings in the rd Netherlands have to comply with. In the 3 chapter regulations with regard to health, sound insulation and sound absorption are mentioned. But like in many other countries the building regulation is not enough to secure a good working environment. The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), who issues the building decree, addresses inhabitants, social organizations and companies concerning their own responsibilities. The ministry removes superfluous rules. Rules, according to their philosophy, should only be there where they are really necessary. Regulations with regard to occupational health only deal with dangerous sound levels above 80 dB and not with disturbing sound between 35 dB and 80 dB. This means that guidelines and standards become more important and they can be the input for the program of demands for a certain building. Only a carefully considered program of demands guarantees the wanted acoustical situation. Acousticians also play an important role in determining the right acoustical values for the different purposes.
3

3. START OF THE GUIDELINE The new Dutch Practical Guideline (Nederlandse praktijkrichtlijn) NPR 3438, issued by the Netherlands Standardization Institute, is a revision of the Dutch pre-standard NVN 3438 from 1995. This pre-standard fulfilled a certain need. Quite a few guidelines, handbooks and articles referred to this pre-standard. A pre-standard is an inventory document, but after a few years a pre-standard should be withdrawn or be replaced by another standard. This was the start of the committee in October 2004. A committee with people from the field of occupational health services, ministry of social affairs and employment, research institutes, acousticians and industry. The decision was made to produce a practical guideline instead of a more compulsory standard. This practical guideline should give a clear understanding of the acoustical parameters for communication and concentration to support the formulation of appropriate room acoustics at the workplace. 4. SUBJECT AND SCOPE This guideline starts with an explanation of the subject and the scope and it gives target values for the sound environment with respect to the limitation of annoyance of communication and concentration at the workplace. It is possible to say something about the degree of disturbance when you know the sound level and the acoustical situation at the workplace. The sound level should be within the limits of the acceptable sound level at the workplace i.e. between 35 dB and 80 dB. Sound levels above 80 dB fall outside the scope of the guideline. The goal of this guideline is on one hand to provide instruction during building and housing and on the other hand improving working conditions. This means that the content of this guideline is on one hand giving technical information to experts and on the other hand directed on making information accessible about the prevention of disturbed communication and concentration. 5. RELEVANT PARAMETERS AND IMPORTANT FACTORS An important part of this guideline is the description of the relevant parameters and important factors. The effects of annoyance by sound can be grouped into three parts: Communication / intelligibility Concentration / performance Wellbeing (irritation) These factors can be influenced and the factors influence each other. Influence on wellbeing has its effect on concentration and performance. In this guideline the relevant parameters for speech intelligibility and concentration are mentioned. Especially the Speech Transmission Index (STI) method lends itself very well for judging the speech intelligibility at the workplace. The STI can be measured or calculated when enough acoustical data from the workplace is available. This guideline also provides tables for a rough calculation method of STI. For concentration, 9 important factors besides sound level and reverberation time are mentioned. Factors like predictability, controllability, individual sensitivity, necessity, and information content of sound all have an influence on concentration. Each person experiences sound in a different way and there is not one single parameter which describes all the factors for all the individuals. When designing or evaluating the workplace in respect to concentration, all the factors should be taking into account, but in order to be able to quantify, this guideline gives also a single parameter (sound level). 6. METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY The intelligibility rating can be qualified according to EN-ISO 9921[3]. Intelligibility Rating STI Excellent > 0.75 Good 0.60 to 0.75 Fair 0.45 to 0.60 Poor 0.30 to 0.45 Bad < 0.30 Table 1. Qualification of STI-values

2 19 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS ICA2007MADRID

th

For each type of work you need a qualification level. In the guideline is a table with different types of work, classified into the importance, the urgency and complexity of communication on the one hand and the frequency on the other hand. Frequency, Time Low Urgency, Complexity, Importance High Good Average Good/Excellent Excellent High

Average

Fair/Good

Good

Good/Excellent

Table 2. STI qualifications related to frequency and urgency, complexity and importance. In this table rather many work situations fit in. For a school teacher, for example, lengthy instruction, giving lectures, brief instruction, sports instruction and group discussions are fit into the table above. For instance lengthy instructions demands an excellent STI qualification because explaining new knowledge or learning material could be complex for the students and the communication lasts quite long. On the other hand sports instruction is of an average complexity, takes shorter time but occurs several times during the lesson (average frequency). Depending on the instruction situation a STI-qualification, from the table above, is needed - from good to excellent. Ordering a coffee in a bar is a message with low complexity and takes only a very short period. A STI-qualification of poor is allowed. But on the other hand medical instruction could have a high complexity, urgency and importance and lasts quite long. An excellent STI rating is needed. 7. CONDITIONS TO BE EXAMINED The following conditions should be examined: Speech level (normal, low voice, raised voice) Distance between the speaker and listener and the position in the room Sound level and spectrum of the background noise level Reverberation time For this guideline only three types of background noise are distinguished. (Type 1: human voice, Type 2: pink noise and Type 3: white noise). With the help of three figures (one for each type of background noise level) an estimation of the STI can be made. The input variables are signal-to-noise ratio, and the reverberation time.

Low

Poor

Fair/Good

Good

3 19 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS ICA2007MADRID

th

STI

Reverberation Time (s) Figure 1. Determination of STI from signal-to-noise ratio and reverberation time. When we use this figure for a classroom with a reverberation time of 0.8 seconds and a signalto-noise ratio of + 9 dB, we will reach a STI of about 0.55. This is not even enough to reach a STI-qualification of good. To achieve that you have to bring down the reverberation time to 0.5 (STI about 0.62) or raise your voice more to achieve a S/N-ratio of about + 15 dB. For lengthy instructions or giving lectures even a higher STI-qualification is needed (excellent STI > 0.75). In the guideline a flow chart will help you to lead you through the process of evaluation the speech intelligibility. 8. METHOD FOR DETERMINING CONCENTRATION When you speak about annoyance by noise the easiest thing is listening yourself. No measurement is needed when an obvious high peep is audible. In this case probably not the sound level is the problem but more the tone of the sound. A table with the minimal concentration qualifications for different type of work can be found in this guideline. Maximum target values (LAeq) and maximum allowed values (LAeq) are mentioned here. When the sound has more disturbing elements in it, like human voices, low and high frequency sound, tonal sound and intermittent sound, additional care should be paid to the target values. Special attention is paid in this guideline to open plan situations like open learning environments and open plan offices. Speech privacy is an important issue. Target values are mentioned for spatial decay of the sound pressure levels. (Dlf Determination of the excess of sound pressure level with respect to a reference sound distribution curve according to ISO 14257 [4]). Target values exist for the near, middle and far region. Advice is given for reducing the sound level and the annoyance by human voices. 9. SUMMARY Acoustic standards and guidelines are important as to secure a certain quality of the building and provide its users with a good sound environment. This will have a positive impact on the quality of communication and concentration and add to the well-being of end-users. National authorities and building regulation tends to not regulate in detail. This means that guidelines and standards become more important and they can be input for the program of demands for a certain building. Most standards and guidelines (national and international) are directed on the acoustical quality of the building. The new Dutch practical guideline NPR 3438 has ergonomics as a starting point. This practical guideline should give a clear understanding of the acoustical parameters for communication and concentration. The goal of this guideline is on one hand to provide instruction during the building process and on the other hand improving working conditions. This means that its content is both of a technical and informative nature. 4 19 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS ICA2007MADRID
th

Perhaps this guideline can be the start to come to an internationally accepted guideline for an undisturbed communication and concentration at the work place. References [1] Dutch practical guideline NPR 3438 Ergonomics Noise at the workplace Determination of the amount of disturbance of communication and concentration (2007) [2] Dutch pre-norm NVN 3438 Ergonomics. Annoyance due to noise at the workplace. Target values for sound level and reverberation time in relation to disturbance of communication and concentration (1995) [3] International standard EN-ISO 9921 Ergonomics Assessment of speech communication (2003) [4] International standard ISO 14257 Acoustics Measurement and parametric description of spatial sound distribution curves in workrooms for evaluation of their acoustic performance (2001)

5 19 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS ICA2007MADRID

th