BS 4142:2019 - Methods for rating and assessing industrial and commercial sound - the past, the present and future developments - a history.

Abstract

BS 4142 is the UK's principal assessment method for quantifying industrial / commercial noise impact. It is surprising to realise that this standard is nearly sixty years old. The first draft of the document that was to become BS 4142 was being prepared in 1962 and was first published early in 1963 as the final report of the Wilson Committee on the problem of noise. As a young acoustician, I like many others, regarded British, and all standards in general, as tablets of stone that were immutable. As I gained in experience it became obvious that this was not true. In fact all standards are periodically reviewed, every five years in the case of a British Standard, to determine if they still reflect the current available evidence that underpins them. The current version of BS 4142 would be virtually unrecognisable to those esteemed authors of the Wilson Report all those sixty years ago. This paper traces the history of BS 4142 from its birth in the Wilson Report, through its revisions, many of which were extremely controversial at the time, to its current iteration. Change is coming with a review and potential revision in 2024 and this paper examines the current developments, both in research and standardisation, that may have significant impacts on this review process and the future development of BS 4142.