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Published on Nov 16
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With about 22 million workers exposed to hazardous noise each year, hearing conservation is a major safety concern across many industries. While you may not always be able to bring down the noise level that employees are exposed to, you can take steps to limit the impact that noise has on your employees’ ability to hear by utilizing noise reduction precautions and monitoring the length of time that employees are subjected to environments with extreme noise. Here are some workplace hearing safety tips that your safety team can use to protect the ear health of your employees.
Signs of potential danger
OSHA has set the permissible exposure limit for noise at 90 decibels for an eight-hour period. The Occupational Noise Exposure Standard calls for maximum exposure time to be reduced by half for every 5-decibel increase. Long-term exposure to 80-85 decibels or more can cause hearing loss without protection and employees should never be exposed to 100 decibels or more without adequate protection for more than 15 minutes. The hearing loss that even this limited exposure causes can be permanent.
Your safety team should be on the lookout for common warning signs that the workplace is too loud, including:
• Employees experience ringing or humming in the ears during working periods.
• Employees have to shout to hear coworkers even when they are within arm’s length.
• Employees experience temporary hearing loss after leaving work, no matter the length or severity.
These warning signs are a clear indication that your safety team and employees need to implement additional precautions for hearing conservation in the workplace.
Earplugs
Wearing high-quality industrial earplugs or ear muffs is the easiest and best way to protect your ears and hearing. Rubber style and foam style earplugs are work in the ear canal to form a seal that blocks much of the ambient noise caused by machinery, tools, and other equipment. Be sure to train your employees how to create an adequate noise reducing seal with the earplugs and that they understand how to safely insert and remove the plugs each day.
Noise-canceling headphones
On-ear noise-canceling headphones are another good option for reducing exposure to loud noises in the workplace. For those with sensitive ears or damage to the ear canal, headphones can reduce an employee’s overall exposure to noise pollution without causing additional strain to the ear.
Protect the ear health of your employees
Our ability to hear greatly affects our ability to be productive members of the workforce. By implementing these workplace hearing safety steps as part of your overall safety plan, you are ensuring that your employees hearing remains intact while also preserving the production capacity of your workplace.
Sheakley’s Workforce Management Services team can help you implement workplace hearing conservation measures to protect the hearing of your employees. To learn more about other important safety issues, visit Sheakley’s calendar of safety-related webinars and training events.
Get your free consultation today with an expert from Sheakley. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Do you have any useful workplace hearing safety tips that you use that are not listed above? Join in the discussion by commenting below.
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