Design
WHO Noise Guidelines
WHO Guidelines for Community Noise (hospital wards)
World Health OrganizationLatest · 1999 (guidelines for community noise)
Scope
WHO's community-noise guidelines recommend sound-level thresholds for hospital patient rooms, widely cited in acoustic-design work. Actual hospital noise routinely exceeds these levels; the guidelines set the target, not the norm.
Where it applies in the room
- Patient room acoustic design
- Alarm sound-level calibration
Key requirements at a glance
| Daytime target | ≤ 35 dB(A) in patient rooms during the day. |
|---|---|
| Nighttime target | ≤ 30 dB(A) at night, with peaks ≤ 40 dB(A). |
Summarized for reference. Consult the source document for the definitive text.
Source & further reading
- · WHO Guidelines for Community Noise (1999) — publisher
Also known as
- WHO Guidelines for Community Noise
- WHO noise guidelines
- WHO noise
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