Green Acoustics at green.sacnc.com Stewart Acoustical Consultants

(courtesy of Fox News and acoustics researcher Norm Phillipp, and Peter D’Antonio (RPG Inc.) who provided the commentary in the article)

Excerpts:

Norm Phillipp…found that at each school at least one portable classroom was used for language instruction, students with special-needs, music instruction or for children younger than 8.

A survey of schools across the U.S. agreed, finding that 26 percent of modular classrooms are used as music rooms, 11 percent are used for early childhood programs, and 9 percent are used for language instruction. …these are exactly the wrong ways for portable classrooms to be used … “When I saw this, my jaw hit the floor,” Phillipp said. “These types of usages should never be in a modular classroom… Kids need a quieter environment than adults because they can’t hear as well…Learning a second language makes it even harder on the hearing. Students need the instructor’s voice turned up an extra 5 decibels against background noise — or the room to be 5 decibels quieter — to comprehend an unfamiliar language, estimated Peter D’Antonio…

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575542,00.html

This information is courtesy of the speech privacy subcommittee of the technical committee on noise at ASA (speechprivacy.org)
 
1. PENALTIES: HIPAA enforcement has been lax, but starting this month (Nov 30), there’s a new $1.5 million penalty for non-compliance as part of Obama’s ARRA-HITECH ACT. If Speech Privacy is one of your interests, this impacts you… See: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hipaa-violators-could-face-fines-15m 
 
2. THE NEW GUIDELINES APPEAR IN MID-JANUARY: …. In mid-January, the new comprehensive acoustical guidelines for healthcare facilities will be published. To order a copy, go to: www.fgi-guidelines.org. Simultaneously, we will publish an updated version of the 50-page “Acoustical Guidelines” (which is the reference standard for the FGI Guidelines) at www.healthcareacoustics.org.
 
3. NEW RESEARCH COMMUNITY: In January our (speech privacy subcommittee) website (www.healthcareacoustics.org) will launch an “online community” for healthcare research to enable healthcare institutions to interact directly with acoustics researchers and consultants. For information, click here .

This FGI guideline paves the way for LEED for Healthcare as well. Per the powerpoint on the “click here” above (thanks to David Sykes et al)

Two “EQ” credits available for acoustics in:

• The LEED-based Green Guide for Healthcare V2.2 (1.31.07),
• the new LEED  for Healthcare (due out late 2009)

FGI’s Interim Sound and Vibration Guideline is the sole reference standard for these credits

 (Added comment from Joe Bridger- HIPAA privacy will likely look to these guides and the related research for its fines.)

(quoted from the ASA program for the Fall 2009 San Antonio meeting and confirmed by Noral Stewart who is participating in the current classroom acoustics standard discussions)

“The US Access Board has proposed to reference ANSI/ASA S12.60-2002 R-2009 in the 2012 International Building Code IBC, which will provide for local enforcement.  If this proposal is adopted, the Board will then update its 2004 ADA-ABA Accessibility Guidelines to harmonize with the IBC…”

This is part of an ongoing effort by the US Access Board to incorporate classroom acoustics into ADA rules.

The classroom acoustics standard is up for revision and is thus being reviewed to make it more suitable for use in the building code (IBC), and to address other concerns raised as it was put into practice over the last 7 years, including mobile classrooms, the outdoor to indoor noise isolation requirements, doors, windows, clarifying language on core learning spaces and discussing a proposal offered to lower the RT (reverberation time) requirement.

Comments are welcome and will be passed along to Noral Stewart who is participating in the working group.