BUY QUIET

Buy Quiet Partners and Promoters

NIOSH partners play an important role in leading efforts to promote Buy Quiet initiatives. Those efforts include:

• In July 2007, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection released a products and vendor guidance sheet to help contractors comply with the New York City Noise Regulations. These new rules reward contractors that deploy tools and machinery that use the best available noise control technologies, or are designed for quiet, or are known to be the quietest available model of its type.
• In 2009, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) implemented a Buy Quiet program, which makes use of the online tool NASA Buy-Quiet Roadmap.
• The government of Western Australia & Department of Commerce has actively promoted Buy Quiet programs. Case studies and examples of reducing noise through buying quieter equipment are detailed here.
• In July 2011, the International Institute for Noise Control Engineering held the symposium ‘Inducing Buy Quiet Purchasing Attitudes Through Simplified Product Noise Ratings’. The goal of the conference was to describe and promote making noise ratings and control solutions available. The presentations can be found here.
• The United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive also provides information and case studies promoting Buy Quiet.
• Safe-In-Sound is an award program partnering the National Hearing Conservation Association with NIOSH to recognize Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention across manufacturing, construction, and services sector industries. Current and past winners have Buy Quiet elements threaded throughout their noise control efforts as demonstrated in their award submission tell-all presentations.
• Institute for Noise Control Engineering has a technical study group working to develop and promote Buy Quiet initiatives while a technical committee examines methods for making noise level information more readily available to the public.
• National Academy of Engineers espouses Buy Quiet principles as part of their Technology for a Quieter America report used to inform Congress on the issues of and state-of-the-art in controlling noise in society. As the report’s editor notes, "… our country needs to address these [noise] issues for reasons of health, individual quality of life, and national economic competitiveness."
• The Noise Pollution Clearinghouse is a national non-profit organization with extensive online noise related resources.

Other organizations who promote Buy Quiet initiatives include:

• CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training
• American Tinnitus Association
• Honeywell International Initiative, Toolbox Training: Construction
• Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health
• The Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America