Vanessa Scampton
Consultancy Services Deputy Manager, Assurity Consulting
28th January 2026
One of the lesser talked about impacts, is the actual physical structure of the AI technology which is hosted in Data Centres across the world. As a health and safety consultancy, one of the biggest concerns our noise risk assessors are hearing about now is the noise levels produced in these spaces by the use of AI servers.
Whilst at Assurity Consulting we have not seen a huge increase in noise levels yet, amongst many of our customers in the UK, we have heard many concerns about the use of these servers in Data Centres abroad and have seen some evidence that they can result in much higher noise levels within the UK too.
To cope with the increasing demand for AI and internet-based technologies, the UK will need to build more Data Centres, and so it is likely that these will house more and more AI racks, and with that we may see much higher noise levels.
Currently a fully occupied data hall might have A-weighted noise levels among the server racks between 80 and 90dB, but these new systems can produce noise levels up to 110dB, and in some cases we are hearing that noise levels can go even higher than this.
The Control of Noise at Work Regulations apply when employees are exposed to noise of 80dB or above over an 8-hour working day. A person exposed to a noise level of 110dB would reach this threshold in less than one minute, which poses challenges for managing this risk. Especially with selecting the right hearing protection that will allow technicians to carry out their work, whilst giving them adequate protection at the same time.
Assurity Consulting will be attending the Data Centre World exhibition on 4th and 5th March, and I hope that there will be designers out there showcasing the technological solutions they have to reduce the noise levels at source within Data Centres.
The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 requires manufacturers to take account of noise risks, and it is always better to treat problems at the source than to find retrofitted solutions or rely on people-based management strategies, and the use of personal protective equipment. I hope that the next generation of AI Data Centres make the most of technological innovation to make sure that noise risks to employees are as low as they can be.