Modern civilization moves ahead with strong economical growth. Using a large number of new technologies and new machines in working procedures brings a proportional growth of noise and vibration. Noise and vibration have become an essential part of active safety measures because they are endangering the health of the employee as well as the public. Preventive solutions are ensured in new legislation and standards too. They facilitate high levels of unification of safety requirements for machines as well as the working environment from the acoustics point of view. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.