04 Jan Noise Safety – Protect Your Hearing

Noise Safety – Protect Your Hearing

Noise safety is important because repeated or excessive exposure to loud noise can permanently damage your hearing. Noise-induced hearing loss usually develops gradually, so you may not realize that damage is occurring until your ability to hear has already been affected.

Unlike many workplace injuries, hearing damage generally cannot be reversed. The good news is that occupational noise-induced hearing loss is preventable when noise hazards are recognized and properly controlled.

How Noise Damages Hearing

Inside the inner ear are delicate sensory hair cells that help convert sound vibrations into signals the brain recognizes as sound. Excessive noise can damage these cells, and once significantly damaged, they do not regenerate.

Excessive noise exposure can result in:

• Permanent hearing loss.
• Tinnitus, commonly experienced as ringing, buzzing, or other sounds in the ears.
• Difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments.
• Difficulty hearing alarms, warning signals, equipment, or approaching vehicles.
• Fatigue, stress, and reduced concentration.

The louder the noise and the longer the exposure, the greater the potential for hearing damage.

Recognize Excessive Noise

Do not assume noise is safe simply because you have become accustomed to it.

Warning signs of potentially hazardous noise include:

• Having to raise your voice to communicate with someone nearby.
• Ringing or buzzing in your ears after leaving the work area.
• Temporary muffled hearing after completing a task.
• Difficulty hearing instructions or warning signals.
• Operating or working near loud machinery, power tools, heavy equipment, saws, grinders, or similar equipment.

Noise exposure should be evaluated when there is uncertainty about whether employees are being exposed to hazardous levels.

Protect Yourself From Noise

Engineering and administrative controls should be used when feasible to reduce employee noise exposure. These may include equipment maintenance, barriers, enclosures, isolation, increased distance, or limiting exposure time.

When hearing protection is required:

• Wear the hearing protection selected for the noise exposure.
• Insert earplugs correctly to obtain an effective seal.
• Wear earmuffs so the cushions completely seal around the ears.
• Keep hearing protection clean and in good condition.
• Replace damaged, dirty, or worn hearing protection.
• Keep hearing protection readily available when working around intermittent noise.
• Do not remove hearing protection while remaining in a hazardous-noise area.

Banded earplugs or earmuffs can be convenient when workers frequently move between noisy and quieter areas.

Consider All Noise Exposure

Noise exposure does not necessarily come from one machine. Several tools, machines, vehicles, or operations occurring at the same time can significantly increase the overall noise level.

Also consider employees working nearby. Your operation may create a noise hazard for coworkers even when they are not performing the noisy task themselves.

Hearing Conservation

Under OSHA requirements, employers must implement a hearing conservation program when employee noise exposure equals or exceeds an 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 dBA.

Depending on exposure, the program may include:

• Noise monitoring.
• Employee notification of monitoring results.
• Audiometric testing.
• Hearing protection.
• Employee training.
• Recordkeeping.

Hearing protection must provide adequate attenuation for the employee’s actual noise exposure.

Remember

You cannot restore hearing once it has been permanently damaged. Recognize noisy work areas, follow established noise controls, and wear hearing protection whenever required.

Protect your hearing today so you can continue to hear tomorrow.