For twenty-two years, South African employers managing occupational noise risk have worked to a single number: 85 dBA. The Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, 2003 built an entire compliance framework around that one noise-rating limit. From 6 September 2026, that framework is gone, and the number that replaces it isn’t a number at all — it’s a system of thresholds that interact with other hazards on your site.

The Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 (Government Notice No. 5953, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025) were promulgated the same day as the Physical Agents Regulations, 2024 — both under sections 43(1)(a) and (b) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993. Regulation 18 sets an 18-month transition: the old Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, 2003 (GNR.307, Government Gazette 24967, 7 March 2003) remain in force until 6 September 2026, after which they’re repealed in full and the new regulations take over — the same commencement date that applies to the Physical Agents Regulations.

If you’ve already read our piece on becoming a Competent Person under the Physical Agents Regulations, the audiometric testing changes below will sit on top of that same competence framework — this post covers what’s specific to noise.

1. The Old Model: One Number, One Duty Set

The Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, 2003 (NIHL) were built around a single trigger: the noise-rating limit of 85 dBA, measured as an 8-hour rating level per SABS 083. Cross the limit, and a defined set of duties activated — hearing protection zones, hearing protective equipment, audiometric testing, and record-keeping. Below 85 dBA, the regulations had essentially nothing to say.

That single-threshold design had a structural blind spot: it treated noise in isolation. A workplace with noise sitting just under 85 dBA but with concurrent exposure to ototoxic chemicals or whole-body vibration — both of which compound hearing damage — fell entirely outside the regulatory net.

2. The New Model: A Second, Lower Threshold for Combined Exposure

The Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 (NER) keep the noise-rating limit but add a second, lower trigger: the noise action level. Per Regulation 1’s definitions, the two thresholds are:

Threshold	Continuous noise (8-hr rating level)	Impulse noise (peak)	When it applies
Noise action level	82 dBA	135 dBC	Concomitant exposure to ototoxic chemical agents and/or whole-body vibration
Noise-rating limit	85 dBA	137 dBC	Applies generally, regardless of combined exposure

The regulations define an ototoxic chemical agent as one with “the potential to cause hearing impairment alone or in combination with noise, even below 85 dBA” — which is the actual logic behind the lower action level: certain chemical exposures lower the noise level at which hearing damage becomes likely, so the regulations lower the trigger point to match. Below the noise action level (in a combined-exposure scenario) or the noise-rating limit (generally), general OHSA duties to reduce noise “as far as reasonably practicable” still apply, but the specific hearing-conservation obligations — noise zones, HPDs, audiometric testing — don’t activate until one of the two thresholds is crossed.

3. New Duties That Didn’t Exist Under the 2003 Regulations

Three additions have no equivalent in the NIHL framework:

Duties on designers, manufacturers, importers, and suppliers. For the first time, anyone who designs, manufactures, imports, or supplies plant or machinery for use at a South African workplace has a duty to minimise noise risk at the design/supply stage and provide the employer with noise and vibration emission data for the equipment (Regulation 6). Under the 2003 regulations, this obligation didn’t exist — noise control was entirely the receiving employer’s problem. If AOAL’s clients include equipment suppliers or importers, this is a new, direct compliance exposure that wasn’t there before.

A Noise Technical Committee. The regulations establish a standing technical committee to advise on codes, standards, and training requirements going forward — meaning the regulatory detail here isn’t static even once the regulations take effect; expect codes of practice and standards to be updated by this committee over time.

A mandatory hierarchy of controls. Where the 2003 regulations set out duties without prescribing how to meet them, the 2024 regulations lean toward requiring engineering controls to be prioritised over administrative measures or hearing protective equipment — consistent with international practice (the EU’s Directive 2003/10/EC uses a comparable three-tier action-value structure), but a more explicit requirement than South African employers have previously had to work to.

Higher penalties. Non-compliance under the 2003 regulations carried a maximum 6-month prison term. Regulation 17 of the NER raises that ceiling to 12 months, plus the same R200-per-day continuing-offence fine (or a day’s additional imprisonment per day, capped at 90 days) carried over from the old regime. That’s a doubling of the maximum custodial exposure, not a cosmetic update.

4. Audiometry: The Part With the Most Operational Detail

This is where the 2024 regulations go considerably further than their predecessor. A full Code of Practice for Audiometry is incorporated directly into the regulatory framework via Regulation 15 — not as guidance, but as an enforceable part of the regulations themselves. Key requirements include:

• Biological calibration of audiometric equipment, with documented evidence retained, plus a daily check on the day of testing
• Baseline audiometric testing must follow at least 16 hours free from noise exposure (without hearing protection). If a valid baseline can’t be established on repeat screening, the employee must be referred to an audiologist — this escalation must happen, as far as reasonably practicable, within a 30-day deadline
• Periodic testing frequency scales with exposure severity: every 12 months for exposures between 85–105 dBA (or 82 dBA+ with combined chemical/vibration exposure, up to 105 dBA), tightening to every 6 months for exposures at or above 105 dBA or 135 dBC. An occupational medicine practitioner may relax this back to 24-month intervals for employees whose Standard Threshold Shift has stayed under 25 dB for three consecutive years
• Testing and certification must be conducted by a competent person — the same competence framework we covered in our Physical Agents post applies here, and audiometric testing specifically still requires a registered audiometrist under the Code of Practice for Audiometry, separate from general occupational hygiene registration
• Two tracked metrics feed into compensation determinations under the Compensation Commissioner’s Instruction No. 171: audiometric zero, Standard Threshold Shift (STS) — defined as a 10 dB or greater average change at 2000/3000/4000 Hz in one or both ears — and Percentage Loss of Hearing (PLH) shift. The regulations set explicit action thresholds: an STS of 10–25 dB triggers an internal investigation and control-measure review; an STS of 25 dB or more, or a PLH shift of 10% or more, triggers mandatory referral to an occupational medicine practitioner, diagnostic audiology, and a report to the Chief Inspector

For employees already employed before the regulations commence, the audiometric zero is established from their existing records rather than a fresh baseline — worth flagging to clients with long-tenured workforces, since it affects how legacy hearing-loss claims will be assessed going forward.

5. It’s Already Being Enforced — Not Just Theoretical

This isn’t a distant compliance date to file away. On 20 March 2026, the Chief Inspector of Occupational Health and Safety published Notice 7292 (Government Gazette No. 54405), granting an exemption from Regulation 8(3) of the Noise Exposure Regulations. That’s a live administrative action under regulations that haven’t even fully commenced yet — a clear signal that the Department is actively managing implementation, and that the September 2026 deadline is being treated as firm.

6. What This Means in Practice

For employers with any noise exposure near current thresholds: Don’t wait for 6 September 2026. If your current noise risk assessments only measure against the old 85 dBA rating limit, they won’t capture combined-exposure scenarios the new action level is designed to catch. Re-assess now, particularly at sites with concurrent chemical (ototoxic) or vibration exposure.

For anyone managing audiometric testing programmes: Audit your current provider against the Code of Practice for Audiometry’s specific procedural requirements — biological calibration records, daily checks, the 16-hour pre-baseline noise-free window, and the 30-day audiologist-referral deadline. A provider that was compliant under the looser 2003 framework may not meet these more prescriptive requirements without changes to their process.

For equipment suppliers and importers: This is a genuinely new duty, not a tightening of an old one. If your organisation designs, imports, or supplies plant or machinery, noise emission data provision is now a direct legal obligation — build it into your product documentation now rather than after an inspector asks for it.

For everyone: The same pattern we identified in our Construction Regulations post is visible here too — South African OHS regulation is moving toward more prescriptive, procedurally detailed frameworks with less room for informal compliance. Noise is simply the sector where that shift has already been finalised rather than still being drafted.

The Bottom Line

The headline change isn’t a new number — it’s a new shape. The 2003 regulations asked one question: are you above 85 dBA? The 2024 regulations ask several: what’s your noise level, what else is this worker exposed to, who designed the equipment making the noise, and can you actually prove your audiometric testing process meets a defined technical standard? That’s a materially higher compliance bar, and the 18-month transition window that started in March 2025 is now well past its midpoint.

If your current hearing conservation programme was built for the 2003 regulations and hasn’t been reassessed since, treat that as the gap to close before September 2026 — not after an inspector identifies it for you.

This is the second post in AOAL Consulting Services’ regulatory series on South African HSE legislation. See also our posts on the Physical Agents Regulations, 2024, becoming a Competent Person under the Physical Agents Regulations, and the Draft Construction Regulations 2025.

Not sure whether your current hearing conservation programme would hold up against the new Code of Practice for Audiometry? Most companies don’t know where to start with legal compliance gap analysis — that’s exactly why AOAL Consulting Services is offering a free virtual gap analysis of your legal register (or your broader compliance position generally) before the September 2026 deadline. No cost, no obligation — just a clear picture of where you actually stand.

This article is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice.

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References

Department of Employment and Labour (2025) Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024, Government Notice No. 5953, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025. Pretoria: Government Printer.

Department of Labour (2003) Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Regulations, Government Notice R.307, Government Gazette No. 24967, 7 March 2003. Pretoria: Government Printer.

Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993. Pretoria: Government Printer.

ENSafrica (2026) South Africa: Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 – Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024 – Exemption from the Provisions of Regulation 8(3). Available at: https://www.ensafrica.com/news/detail/11599/south-africa-occupational-health-and-safety-a (Accessed: 26 August 2026).

ENSafrica (2025) South Africa: Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (“OHASA”) – Physical Agents Regulations 2024, Noise Exposure Regulations 2024, and Amendment of the General Safety Regulations 2025. Available at: https://www.ensafrica.com/news/detail/9836/south-africa-occupational-health-and-safety-a (Accessed: 26 August 2026).

Department of Employment and Labour (2025) Noise Exposure Regulations, 2024, Code of Practice for Audiometry and Explanatory Notes, Government Gazette No. 52226, 6 March 2025. Pretoria: Government Printer.

European Parliament and Council (2003) Directive 2003/10/EC on the Minimum Health and Safety Requirements Regarding the Exposure of Workers to Risks Arising from Physical Agents (Noise). Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2003/10/article/3/data.html (Accessed: 26 August 2026).