6 November 2009
Re: Love Your Ears... Hear Hear!
Dear Sir,
The Noise Abatement Society’s ‘Love Your Ears’ campaign, aims to raise awareness and protect children’s hearing from permanent damage through continued exposure to loud music on MP3 players. However, it should also echo with the construction industry, where BB93 verification is yet to become mandatory and schools still risk failing to meet minimum acoustic standards.
The same children that are damaging their ears through listening to loud music are being taught in school buildings where poor acoustics make it hard enough to hear lessons as it is. Although all new school designs must comply with BB93 acoustic standards, once the project is on-site there is no legislation governing quality control. Neither is there mandatory on-site sound testing to confirm the approved acoustic designs have not been compromised by specification erosion or poor workmanship.
All indications point to BB93 verification becoming mandatory very soon, with the BB93 review consultation already underway. For those leading the review; now is the time to take action.
Prevention not cure – especially where billions of pounds of investment is concerned. Let’s learn from the costly mistakes of the early BSF waves and commit to protecting the integrity of BB93 acoustic designs now – so that lessons can still be heard long in to the future.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Absolon
Technical Director
CMS Acoustic Solutions
Unit 4,
Eagle Park,
Eagle Park Drive,
Warrington
WA2 8JA
