Is stamping or press operation considered as noise pollutant?

Is stamping or press operation considered as noise pollutant?

I don't consider it "pollution," but it is loud, and unpleasant and in the US, subject to OSHA safety regulations for hearing protection, safety guards and so on. But, nothing special beyond that.

I don't consider it "pollution," but it is loud, and unpleasant and in the US, subject to OSHA safety regulations for hearing protection, safety guards and so on. But, nothing special beyond that.
Actually, it depends on location. Many years ago I worked in a small stamping shop in Chicago that was on the edge of a residential neighborhood. There were houses right across the alley in the rear, probably less than 100 feet from the nearest presses. There was a large overhead door in the rear that was always open in the summer. Although there were no issues that I know of at the time, a case could be made for the noise being excessive if one of those neighbors was bothered.

Is stamping or press operation considered as noise pollutant?It certainly could be, and as JSW05 points out, it depends on who's listening (and on your local legislation).

In our case, we have people living close by. Thus we are required to keep our noise emissions below set borderlines. We check this twice a year, measuring our sound emissions from points outside our perimeter (in the middle of the night in order to get minimum interference from other sources. On one occasion we had to give it up due to an infuriatingly persistent nightingale close to one of the measuring points. Those birds are loud. :lol: ).

Among other things, we have had to redesign vents and fix squeaking fan bearings, and such things.

Yes, noise pollution is for real.

/Claes

I feel stamping has a potential for two areas of concern. First your employees. I suggest you get a sound level meter and measure the noice output for the employees working near the source. OSHA has very specific guidliens for employee safety.

Second, as others have stated, you have a potential concern based on your community. Does the sound escaping your plant have a negative impact on those in your neighborhood? If yes, I'm sure your neighbors consider the noise a pollutant. If no, you are probably ok.

Certainly noise can be one of an organisation's aspects. For all the reasons previously.

The UK legislation refers to noise as pollution and, at a local level, most organisations have a clause in their operating permits defining maximum acceptable noise levels at the boundaries. Others have time restrictions on their incoming and outgoing traffic to prevent noise (and emissions) pollution at unsociable hours.

One of my clients has most definitely considered the noise of their operation (cold heading) as an undesired output.

They are located in an area that was rural until a few years ago and is now
seeing lots of residential development quite near their plant. They are building a "berm" -- artificial hill -- separating them from a housing development being built next door. I don't know the details, but apparently the developer approached
them and offered to subsidize building the berm, in order to make his property
more attractive. They treated this as an ISO 14000 issue.

Personally, I would think long and hard before buying a new, $400,000 USD home within 500 yards/meters of a factory of any sort... but apparently some
home buyers are not as practical.

Regards,
Brad

When I lived in New Hampshire in the mid-1980's there was a case in the local newspaper covering the suit between some folks who had purchased inexpensive land from a surface mining operation (I think it was a gravel pit.), then built expensive homes on the property, then sued the operation for noise, dust, etc. impacting the value of their homes. Even though the industrial operation was there first, the home owners won and the business had to go to extra expense to curtail those problems - fences, berms, etc.

I've heard similar stories in Pennsylvania, (which may be nothing more than urban legends) but more often related to farms where the new home owners complain regarding normal farm operations such as the smell associated with spreading manure in the spring before plowing fields, or noise from roosters crowing in the morning. Again, the all too common response seems to be to sue to correct what caused the land to be low priced and attractive to build on in the first place.

I'm not saying Brad's client will face that situation, but if I were in his shoes I'd be worried about residential homes so close to a cold heading operation.

Our facility has presses from 85 tons to 500 tons. We are situated on a main thoroughfare but there are houses across the street from us and on the street behind us. We have designed our building to have the offices and toolroom on the front of the building (thus buffering the noise from the house across the street) and planting large trees behind our building and enclosing our scrap hoppers to buffer the noise from the houses behind us. The noise from scrap metal dropping into the hoppers was far more irratating to the neighbors as were the presses pounding. We furthermore limit any overhead doors from remaining opened between 8 p.m to 8 a.m. except for entry and exit. We have put this in our 14001 procedures and have been audited to them.

Quick series of questions.

1) is noise an element of your activities, products, or services?
If so, then
2) can it interact with the environment?
If so, then it is an aspect.

That second question can be open to argument.

If it is an aspect, can it cause a significant impact on the environment?
If so, then it is a significant aspect. Once again this can be open to argument.

The bottom line is that the answers to these questions must be answered by the organization. I would answer them, and document the answer.

One question I did not ask is whether the noise is regulated. If it is, then in my opinion, it should automatically be treated as a significant aspect.