ACOUSTIC LABEL OF CEMENT FACTORIES Miguel Lopes 1 , Márcia Melro 2 , Christine Matias 2 , Luís Conde Santos 2 1 ABSORSOR Indústria – Acústica, Vibração e Ambiente, Lda; 2 dBLab - Laboratório de Acústica e Vibrações, Lda. miguel.lopes@absorsor.pt; marcia.melro@absorsor,pt; christine.matias@absorsor.pt; luis.conde@absorsor.pt Abstract Higher public awareness of environmental issues lead to more stringent legislation and higher pressure on companies to assess and control noise from their activities. New and powerful Environmental Management Systems are implemented to predict, in an initial stage of a project, noise nuisance to neighbours. Yet, these complex systems can be used to define simple to use indicators in a way that can be used in a preliminary stage as a guide to noise nuisance. This paper presents the methodology used to create an “Acoustic Label” of Cement Factories based on a correlation formula between Tons of Cement Production and Sound Power Level. Also, the “noise spread” around a cement factory was calculated taking into account noise classes. Data was used from ten cement factories located in Portugal, Spain, Angola and Mozambique. Keywords: Noise Maps, Industrial Noise, Noise Control. 1 Introduction Cement factories are noisy. The best way to avoid future noise problems, is to adequately choose a location where those problems will be minimized. In developed countries, perhaps the construction of a new plant isn't foreseen in the future, but for developing countries that can be an issue. This paper presents a methodology of detailed noise prediction for the operation of a cement production facility and also the calculation of “rule of thumb” formulae for the initial noise assessment of a new cement factory in terms of its production capacity. 1