Report on the "NOMAD" project. A survey of instructions supplied with machinery with respect to noise and the requirements of the Machinery Directive.

The NOMAD project was a survey to examine the noise-related content of instructions supplied with machinery offered for purchase in the European Economic Area (EEA). The project collected more than 1,500 sets of instructions from machines covering 40 broad machine-families from 800 different manufacturing companies. The information in these instructions was analysed to determine compliance with the requirements of the Machinery Directive, and assess the quality of information.
The general state of compliance of machinery instructions with the noise-related requirements of the Machinery Directive was found to be very poor: 80% of instructions did not meet legal requirements. The main causes of failure to meet legal requirements were: some or all required numerical values relating to noise emissions were missing; and, where values were given they were not traceable to machine operating conditions or measurement methods, and not credible either against stated conditions/methods or as warnings of likely risk in real use.
As a consequence, it is considered highly likely that, in making a machinery procurement decision, employers are prevented from taking noise emissions into account, and are prevented from understanding what is necessary to manage the risks from noise relating to equipment that is procured.
Recommendations are made for actions aimed at bringing about a global improvement to the current situation. The recommendations consist of targeted actions that are achievable on a large scale, can be carried out within existing frameworks and are expected to have measureable outcomes. Targeted actions are proposed aimed at raising awareness of the legal requirements, responsibilities and actions required among the various groups who have parts to play in the system - machine manufacturers, standards-makers, machine users, and occupational safety and health professionals. Proposals are also made towards enforcement campaigns aimed at machine manufacturers, and towards targeted market surveillance activities.
Recommendations are also made aimed at providing, or improving, tools and resources for both machinery manufacturers and market surveillance personnel.