Occupational noise exposure and hearing conservation programs can be one of the most elusive and oftentimes one of the most challenging programs to manage in the industrial setting. As safety professionals, we need to become more aware and better versed in occupational noise exposure and how it affects diverse workforces, but first, let’s look at the numbers.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, more than 20 million workers are exposed to hazardous levels of noise at work. Employers were cited nearly $1.5 million in federal OSHA citations in 2017, and workers’ compensation payouts cost another $242 million. Unlike other injuries, hearing loss is hard to see and diagnose with the naked eye. Its effects are easily masked and largely unrecognized until late in a worker’s career, when he or she is sitting at home and a neighbor has to ask the person to turn down the television.
In 2010, the Bureau of Labor statistics reported that 12 percent of all reported illnesses were related to occupational hearing loss, which equates to more than 18,000 workers who experienced significant hearing loss related to work.
Safety professionals must recognize the significant impact hearing conservation has on an employee. Most bones will heal, lacerations can be stitched, but once hearing is lost, it’s gone forever. As the next generation of workers enters the workforce, we need to take a step back and look at how we manage hearing conservation and industrial noise exposure by getting back to the basics.
The Tipping Noise Scales
So, what is noise? To understand noise we first have to understand sound. Sound, as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing, see Table 1. Noise, conversely, is defined as any sound that is undesired or interferes with one’s hearing of something.
