The NASA Glenn Research Center "Buy Quiet" Program aims to achieve long-term reduction of employee noise exposures through purchase of equipment that conforms to hearing conservation program goals. The "Buy Quiet" approach requires designers and engineers to consider noise emission when purchasing equipment that is expected to generate noise emission levels of concern for hearing conservation (80 dBA and higher).

Please note that this program is focused solely on hearing loss prevention and does not address other important noise exposure issues such as speech intelligibility and work environment comfort that are often associated with moderate- or lower-level noise sources. A comprehensive approach to noise exposure management will consider these lower and moderate level noise issues as well as hearing loss prevention when developing requirements for any siting, procurement, and design projects.

A Guide to Specifying Equipment Noise Emission Levels has been developed with an emphasis on ease of use for persons having only minimal familiarity with acoustics.

The Guide to Specifying Equipment Noise Emission Levels was developed for the NASA Glenn Research Center by  David Nelson under contract with  Hoover & Keith, Inc.

For more information about the "Buy Quiet" program at NASA Glenn Research Center, please see the publication below:

Cooper, Beth A. and Nelson, David A. "A "Buy Quiet" Program for NASA Glenn Research Center: Specifying Low Equipment Noise Emission Levels." Proceedings of Noise-Con 1997. 17 June, 1997. (.pdf file)

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