Noise Controls Now Required on Newly Constructed Ships
Amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) that took effect July 1 also require all ships to have plans and procedures to recover people from the water.
Amendments to SOLAS, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, went into effect July 1; they were developed as part of the International Maritime Organization’s work on large passenger ship safety. The aim was to ensure all ships have the capability to effectively serve as a rescue asset and have the right equipment for rescuing people from the water and from survival craft during an incident.
Ships built before July 1, 2014, are required to comply with the requirement by the first periodical or renewal safety equipment survey of the ship. SOLAS has been ratified by 162 countries representing 98.77 percent of the world’s merchant shipping tonnage, according to IMO.
Two important changes are the new SOLAS regulation II-1/3-12, which requires new ships to be constructed to reduce on-board noise and to protect personnel from noise, and amended SOLAS regulation II-2/10 on firefighting, which requires a minimum of two two-way portable radiotelephone apparatus for each fire party for firefighters’ communication to be carried. The revisions concerning noise set mandatory maximum noise level limits for machinery spaces, control rooms, workshops, accommodation, and other spaces on ships. And the radiotelephone apparatus must be explosion-proof or intrinsically safe.
For seafarers, IMO has issued A Pocket Guide to Recovery Techniques (IMO I947E).