Alberta holds you to 85 dBA Lex over an eight-hour shift, and on a concrete site that number is gone before coffee. A cut-off saw on a slab, a chipping gun on a wall, a grinder on a tie hole — each of them puts a worker past the daily limit in minutes, not hours, and the Code does not care that the task only took twenty minutes.
That makes noise the unusual hazard on an Alberta site: the one where the obligation is numeric and the number is low. Vibration has no limit in the Code at all. Noise has a table, a measurement method, a mandatory program and a testing schedule with dates on it. Most of the sites we walk onto have none of the four.
After 38 years pouring, cutting and breaking concrete in this city, the pattern we see is consistent. Hearing protection is on site. The paperwork that is supposed to sit behind it is not. Here is what Part 16 actually requires, and where a concrete scope trips it.
The short answer, and the exchange rate that makes it bite
Alberta’s occupational exposure limit is 85 dBA Lex,8 — an eight-hour equivalent — with a 3 dB exchange rate. CCOHS lists Alberta in its national table at exactly those two figures, with no separate peak or impact limit.
The exchange rate is the part that catches people. A 3 dB rate means the permitted time halves for every 3 dB increase in level. It is the strictest of the two rates in common use, and it is unforgiving on short, loud tasks. Alberta’s own bulletin spells out the equivalence: 88 dBA for four hours, or 91 dBA for two hours, is the same exposure as 85 dBA for eight.
Run that down the table published in Schedule 3 of the Code:
| Exposure level (dBA) | Maximum duration |
|---|---|
| 82 | 16 hours |
| 85 | 8 hours |
| 88 | 4 hours |
| 91 | 2 hours |
| 94 | 1 hour |
| 97 | 30 minutes |
| 100 | 15 minutes |
| 103 | 8 minutes |
| 106 | 4 minutes |
| 109 | 2 minutes |
| 112 | 56 seconds |
| 115 and greater | 0 |
Fifteen minutes at 100 dBA. Not fifteen minutes of shift — fifteen minutes of exposure, and the rest of the day’s noise still counts against the same budget.
Where the duty lives
Part 16 of the OHS Code runs from section 216 to section 224, and the structure is worth knowing because each section is a separate thing an officer can ask to see:
- 216 — duty to reduce noise
- 217 — noise control design
- 218 — worker exposure to noise
- 219 — noise exposure assessment
- 220 — record of the assessment
- 221 — noise management program
- 222 — hearing protection
- 223 — audiometric testing
- 224 — deemed work time
Note what that list implies. Hearing protection is section 222 — the seventh item, not the first. Handing out plugs is the control of last resort in the Code’s own ordering, and it does not discharge 219, 220, 221 or 223.
Section 217 is the one builders should read twice. When you design or construct a new work site, significantly alter an existing one, introduce a new work process or bring in significant new equipment, the requirement is to keep noise to no more than 85 dBA, or as low as reasonably practicable. That is a procurement clause disguised as a safety clause. It applies when you are choosing a saw, not when you are handing out plugs for it.
What a concrete task actually measures
This is where published numbers mislead people, so it is worth separating two kinds of figure.
The equipment numbers you find easily are community numbers — measured at 50 feet from the machine. They are the right figures for a neighbour and the wrong figures for the man holding the tool, and quoting them in a hazard assessment is how an assessment gets dismissed.
The numbers that matter are taken at the worker. US compliance sampling collected by CPWR gives a sense of scale for concrete tasks specifically:
| Task | Measured level | Sample length |
|---|---|---|
| Chipping a concrete floor | 96 dBA (time-weighted average) | 4.5 hours |
| Jackhammering | 102 dBA | 7.5 hours |
| 36-inch wall saw | 100 dBA | 4.5 hours |
| Cut-off saw operator | 98 dBA | 7 hours |
| Tuckpoint grinding | 99 dBA | 2.5 hours |
| Breaking pavement from a skid steer | 112 dBA | 7 hours |
Those are American inspection figures, not Alberta measurements, and they are task samples rather than certified Lex values. Use them for scale only. But set 96 dBA against the table above and the gap is not marginal — it is a man eleven decibels over an eight-hour limit while chipping a floor, which the 3 dB rule turns into roughly a half-hour allowance for the whole day. A crew cutting joints and grinding a wall in the same shift is not near the limit; it is multiples past it.
The assessment is a method, not an opinion
Section 219 is the section most hazard assessments fail, because it has technical requirements that a walkaround cannot satisfy.
An assessment is required where workers are or may be exposed above the limits, and it must be conducted and interpreted by a competent person. Measurement follows a published Canadian acoustics standard, and the instrument settings are prescribed: dosimeters set to an 85 dBA criterion level, a 3 dB exchange rate, a threshold at or below 80 dBA or switched off, and slow response.
Three consequences for a site super:
- “It sounds loud” is not an assessment, and neither is a phone app. The settings above are the difference between a defensible number and an anecdote.
- The trigger is the voice test. Alberta’s guidance says an initial survey is required in areas where workers have to significantly raise their voices to be heard. That describes most of a slab pour.
- It expires. The assessment has to be updated when equipment or process changes affect either the level or the exposure time. A new saw is a new assessment.
Section 220 then requires the record. An assessment nobody can produce is, in practice, an assessment nobody did.
What a noise management program has to contain
Where the assessment confirms excess noise, section 221 requires a written program with policies and procedures, and it enumerates the contents. Seven items, and all seven are checkable:
- A plan to educate workers about the hazard and train them in controls and in hearing protection.
- Methods and procedures for measuring or monitoring exposure.
- Warning signs in any area where noise exceeds 85 dBA.
- The noise control methods to be used.
- Selection, use and maintenance of hearing protection.
- Audiometric testing requirements and retention of the test records.
- An annual review of the training, the need for further measurement, and the adequacy of the controls.
Item 3 is the cheapest line item on any site and the most commonly missing. Item 7 has a date attached — annually — which means a program written once and filed is already non-compliant in its second year.
Workers carry a duty too: section 221 requires them to cooperate in implementing the program.
Hearing protection is selected from a table, not off a shelf
Section 222 does not permit a general-purpose plug. Protection must meet the referenced Canadian hearing-protector standard and must be the class and grade matched to the measured level in Schedule 3, Table 2. The escalation runs roughly as follows:
| Maximum equivalent level | What Table 2 permits |
|---|---|
| Up to 90 dBA Lex | Class C, B or A protector |
| Up to 95 dBA Lex | Class B or A |
| Up to 100 dBA Lex | Class A only |
| Up to 105 dBA Lex | Class A, highest grade |
| Up to 110 dBA Lex | Earplug and earmuff together |
| Over 110 dBA Lex | Earplug and earmuff, plus limited exposure time to keep the level at the eardrum below 85 dBA Lex |
Two practical points. Dual protection is a requirement above 110 dBA Lex, not an abundance of caution — and the jackhammer and skid-steer figures above are in that neighbourhood. And Alberta’s bulletin warns that modifying protectors, such as drilling earcups, can seriously compromise their effectiveness. If a crew has drilled their muffs to hear each other, the control is gone and the paperwork is wrong.
Audiometric testing has three dates
Section 223 is the requirement that surprises contractors most, and it is specific. For workers exposed to excess noise, the employer pays for:
- an initial baseline test as soon as is practicable, and not later than six months after the worker is employed — and the same six-month clock restarts when a change in duties or process causes excess exposure;
- a follow-up test not more than 12 months after the baseline; and
- ongoing testing at least every second year after that.
Testing is done by a technician who has completed an approved course, abnormal audiograms are reviewed by a physician or audiologist at the employer’s expense, and records are kept on file for 10 years.
Read that cadence against a concrete labour force. Six months is shorter than a season on a crew that turns over, and the obligation attaches to the employer, not to the job. On a multi-employer site the prime contractor’s coordination duty makes this everyone’s problem rather than nobody’s — the same structure we set out in our note on prime contractor requirements in Alberta.
The checklist we use before a cutting or demolition scope
- Assessment in hand, done by a competent person, with the dosimeter settings recorded.
- Record filed where someone other than its author can find it.
- Signs up wherever the measured level exceeds 85 dBA.
- Protection matched to the measured level, not to the stores cupboard, with dual protection specified where the number calls for it.
- Method reviewed first. A slab sawn into panels and lifted out puts fewer hours on hand tools than the same slab broken — and the same decision lowers dust and vibration exposure at the same time. Our guides to silica dust control for concrete cutting and hand-arm vibration exposure limits cover the other two hazards that travel with this one.
- Audiometric dates tracked per worker, not per project.
- Program reviewed this year, with the review written down.
Five of those seven cost nothing but sequence. Across more than 52,000 projects, the ones that caused an argument were never the loud days. They were the quiet files.
Where this page stops
This page covers occupational noise exposure under Part 16: the exposure limit, the assessment, the program, protection selection and audiometric testing. It is not about the municipal noise rules that govern what hours a crew may work, which are a bylaw question rather than an OHS one. It is not about hand-arm vibration, which the Code handles with no numeric limit at all. It is not about respirable silica from cutting. Each is a separate assessment, and none of them substitutes for this one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the legal noise exposure limit in Alberta? 85 dBA Lex,8 — an eight-hour equivalent level — with a 3 dB exchange rate. There is no separate peak or impact limit listed for Alberta.
How long can a worker run a concrete saw? It depends on the measured level, not the tool. At 97 dBA the Schedule 3 table allows 30 minutes; at 100 dBA, 15 minutes; at 103 dBA, 8 minutes. Measure the task before you plan the day around it.
Do we need a noise management program if everyone wears plugs? Yes. Hearing protection is section 222. The assessment, the record, the program and audiometric testing are separate sections, and protection does not discharge them.
When is the first hearing test due? Not later than six months after the worker is employed, then within 12 months of that baseline, then at least every second year. The employer pays, and records are kept for 10 years.
Is a phone decibel app good enough? No. The assessment must be conducted and interpreted by a competent person, with measurement to the referenced acoustics standard and prescribed dosimeter settings, including the 3 dB exchange rate.
Talk to us before the saw is on the schedule
Noise exposure is decided by method selection, and method selection happens at quoting — not on the morning the cutting starts. Sawing a slab into liftable panels, coring instead of breaking, or taking a wall out mechanically changes the measured number at the worker’s ear far more than any protector will.
If you have cutting, coring or removal in a Calgary scope, bring it to us while the sequence is still on paper. See our concrete cutting and coring in Calgary, send the drawings, and we will come back with a method and an honest estimate of how many hours anyone spends inside a running tool’s noise.
Sources
- Alberta OHS Code, Part 16 — Noise: https://search-ohs-laws.alberta.ca/legislation/occupational-health-and-safety-code/part-16-noise/
- Government of Alberta, Safety Bulletin HS003, Noise at the Work Site: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/543371ee-013b-4a94-9a34-52fae25774be/resource/3f38702a-7730-4161-8b59-1f94c6a15779/download/whs-pub-hs003.pdf
- CCOHS, Noise — Occupational Exposure Limits in Canada: https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/noise/exposure_can.html
- eLCOSH / CPWR, OSHA’s Approach to Noise Exposure in Construction: https://elcosh.org/document/1666/d000573/oshas-approach-to-noise-exposure-in-construction.html