It’s impossible to miss how quiet it is outside during the COVID-19 lockdown. Vehicles, aircraft, fixed plant and people noise have all significantly reduced as the UK Government advice of Stay Safe Stay Home is actively enforced.

This has created a unique set of environmental noise conditions and, as a dedicated community of scientists, we are urging you to please take part in a community data gathering exercise to capture this moment.

The ASBA course is approved by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) and the Institute of Acoustics and relates to the implementation of the noise provisions of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act in Scotland. It is designed to enable successful candidates to make and report the required noise measurements in a competent manner.

Check out and have fun with some IOA sponsored content that has been created for us by Edinburgh Science (ES). The tutoring material is called Ella’s Wobble and is designed to get young people to think about how different sounds are made, how sounds travel and how we can detect sounds depending on what produces them.

We are very grateful to ES who have worked hard under difficult circumstances to produce this at-home ‘acoustics’ tutoring material within a very short time period.     

We are writing to you to ask for your Institution's full support in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

As you are aware there are a number of new medical facilities being built at ExCel London as well as two other Field Hospitals in Manchester and Birmingham to treat patients with COVID-19.

We would like to inform you that Institute of Acoustics has decided to take safety precautions following the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Some staff are already working from home and from Friday 20 March  all staff will be home working and will only be contactable by email. 

Note from organisers of International Year of Sound:

In the International Year of Sound, the Institute of Acoustics recently brought up the importance of acoustics in Parliament on 24th February 2020 in a wide ranging debate held by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee, the oldest such committee formed in 1939.

This led to excellent discussion with requests from the committee for follow up information.

The IOA has responded to the Future Homes Standard 2019 Consultation on changes to Part L (conservation of fuel and power) and Part F (ventilation) of the Buildings Regulations for new dwellings.

Read our response in the att. document.

Any questions, please email:  ioaioa.org.uk (ioa[at]ioa[dot]org[dot]uk)  

CIEH has today published the results of its flagship noise survey, which provides the only source of information on the vital contribution made by Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) working to resolve noise complaints in England.

As the only source of local authority noise complaints data in England, the CIEH survey is a vital resource for public health policy makers. Data from the CIEH survey is being used by Public Health England for the Public Health Outcomes Framework, which establishes an important link between noise and health outcomes.