Trusted Reviews partners with Quiet Mark to raise awareness on noise pollution

Trusted Reviews and Quiet Mark announce strategic product testing collaboration to profile products which reduce noise pollution to provide greater support for consumer health & wellbeing.

• The move aims to increase consumer empowerment to choose quieter products.
• Quiet Mark certified products tripled over the past year as a result of lockdowns and ongoing WFH policies.
• Noise is second only to air pollution as the world’s largest killer pollutant,1 and can be reduced by facilitating responsible sourcing.

March 2022, Trusted Reviews the leading independent consumer product reviews brand, with Quiet Mark the global certification programme for solutions to unwanted noise, have together announced a new collaboration dedicated to help more consumers find the best acoustic performing products at Trusted Reviews, by providing buying advice short-cuts to solve unwanted excessive noise.

Noise is a long-time ignored invisible killer, and in excess can have a damaging effect on health, productivity and cohesion, according to research from the World Health Organisation (WHO). This research shows that environmental noise pollution affects mental and physical health and is now second only to air pollution as the world’s largest killer pollutant, with numbers rising to at least 1 million years of healthy living lost each year due to noise pollution in Western Europe across an estimated population of 340 million people.

Image: 37% of working UK adults worked from home in 2020. A recent survey showed that 60% of workers said they wanted home working to stay, while 100% wanted the option to work from the office and home.

Since 2020, lockdowns and Work-from-Home policies have brought to light the importance of noise reduction in the environment, in our homes and in the workplace. To further prioritise health and wellbeing, to support the Responsible-Sourcing Movement, Trusted Reviews and Quiet Mark new alliance will enable millions of Trusted Reviews readers to easily find Quiet Mark certified products.

Quiet Mark’s National Noise Report released in October 2021 in association with the UK Noise Abatement Society charitable foundation, further demonstrates the increasing demand for noise reduction solutions, both in households and workplaces. The research was carried out 18 months after the first lockdown, and examined attitudes towards noise in the new pandemic-recovery scenario. The results highlight the importance of a quieter home with over four fifths of people stating they would like quieter appliances and two thirds of 18 – 34 year olds wishing to have a quieter home. The findings reveal noise has become a decisive factor for 52% of the British population when making decisions regarding future employment.

Image: A Quiet Mark certified Miele Washer-Dryer. According to Quiet Mark’s National Noise Report, over four fifths (82%) of UK adults have appliances within their home that they would like to make less noise than they currently do. Brits would most like their washing machine to make less noise than it currently does (45%), followed by their vacuum cleaners (43%), hairdryers (23%), food mixers and kettles (both 20%).

Sound measurement is a key metric that is not currently a priority for mainstream consumer sites, despite being a huge factor determining how a product maybe easy or not to live with day to day.

New joint testing projects between the two consumer champions aims to help elevate the aural design of products, optimising the overall level of acoustic comfort for homes and offices, ranging from laptops and headphones, to white goods and small home appliances. The results of lab testing will be used to offer Trusted Reviews readers a new metric to base purchase decisions on while flagging if it has been accredited by Quiet Mark’s specialist acoustic measurement standards. Trusted Reviews and Quiet Mark are also teaming up to offer manufacturers support to independently evaluate the noise performance of their products.

Image: The Quiet Mark certified Dualit Classic Kettle. As a nation of tea drinkers, it may come as no surprise that kettles are the most viewed product category on QuietMark.com!

Poppy Szkiler, CEO and CoFounder of Quiet Mark said:

“Because sound is invisible it is often overlooked. Investing in the best acoustic products in the hub of your home is an investment in the health and happiness of your loved ones because sound profoundly effects our stress levels, sleep patterns, productivity, concentration, brain waves, heart rate, all our physical rhythms.”

“Trusted Reviews shared passion to champion lowest sound levels across home technologies is a leadership example in understanding how to truly care for their readers along with Quiet Mark’s other established acoustic testing partners. Especially at this time of great global change where family and work life is now often all under one roof daily, solutions to support peace in the home have become a must have.”

Trusted Reviews’ Managing Director, Chris Dicker listed the partnership as a key step in the business’ mission to help readers make informed purchases.

“At Trusted Reviews we pride ourselves on delivering best in class product testing and recommendations to our readers. Partnering with Quiet Mark gives us the ability to double down on our audio testing in relevant categories and offer our readers valuable information on the sound emitted by those products,” said managing director, Chris Dicker, “Noise is such an important factor many consumers may not take into consideration, until they’ve bought a product and have to live with it day-in, day-out. With our new partnership we can make sure there is awareness pre-purchase, reducing our readers’ chance of experiencing buyers’ remorse.”

The news is one of many announcements from Trusted Reviews this week. The company announced the launch of its B2B Trusted Reviews Labs business the same day. The new labs business complements Trusted Reviews editorial wing and includes test facilities for mobile, TV and audio, computing, gaming, photography and homes split across two locations:

The suites are managed and run by a team of product experts at Trusted Reviews as well as dedicated technicians. Each lab features uniform, controlled environments and is fitted with expert test equipment to help our team accurately gauge a product’s performance and how it compares to its competitors.

Image: The Quiet Mark Lab - In our homes, a sound from a product, device, or our own voices, will reflect off many surfaces, impacting the sound level and quality, unlike in a controlled acoustic laboratory. Therefore, we test in a mock-kitchen to include standard reflecting surfaces that are how a consumer would typically experience the sound.

Quiet Mark leads its definitive acoustic measurement system engaging with global specialist acoustic teams. Quiet Mark conduct assessment of declared technical test data, and acoustic measurement of products in the purpose-built Quiet Mark test laboratory and specialist acoustic lab partners for specific product categories.

Read the article on the Trusted Reviews website here.