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NIOSH Workshop Highlights Noise

underlying reasons for lack of widespread implementation, the barriers to effective hearing loss prevention, and the research agenda necessary to promote the general application of engineering control and protective equipment technologies.

State of the Art in Noise Control
Noise control technology has been developed and applied for industrial machinery and equipment, but implementation of the technology has been limited.   Reliance on hearing conservation over engineering as the primary means for exposure control has limited introduction of the technology to

some industries, primarily larger corporations who maintain top-down support of health and safety issues.  Awareness of and interest in the nature and availability of controls within small and medium sized businesses is limited.  Worker exposure to noise is controllable through application of noise control engineering technology and through the proper use of hearing protection devices (HPD).   The barriers to effective implementation of current technology need to be identified.

Noise and hearing health issues are

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underlying reasons for lack of implementation, the barriers to effective hearing loss prevention, and the research agenda necessary to promote the widespread application of existing technologies.

Presentations

The following invited presentations provided the basis for discussion.

Noise Control: State of the Art and Unfinished Business

Richard R. James
Robert D. Bruce
Thomas Thunder
Jon Weinstein

Noise Control: Emerging Technologies
Daniel L. Johnson
Richard R. James

Hearing Protectors: State of the Art and Emerging Technologies
Fredrick Lindgren
Dan Gauger 
Kevin Michael
John R. Franks
Introduction
The consensus of the group was that it was necessary to broaden the discussion on noise to include hearing and hearing health issues.  Further, the group concluded that it was impossible to limit discussions of hearing health issues to the workplace without consideration of non-occupational exposures.

Regarding engineering controls, it was the consensus of the group that, in general, proven technology exists and is commercially available to control worker exposure to hazardous noise.  Participants focused on the

The Noise Monitor is published by James, Anderson & Associates, Inc. as a public service to the hearing loss prevention, hearing conservation, noise control, safety, and management communities.   JAA makes no warranty or guarantee as to accuracy of any information contained in The Noise Monitor, and further bears no liability for action or inaction of any person or entity regarding information contained herein.

James, Anderson & Associates, Inc. (JAA) is a leader in noise control engineering, employee sound exposure monitoring, hearing loss prevention, and hearing conservation program development for industry, serving clients in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom from offices in Okemos and Detroit, Michigan; Sarasota, Florida; and El Paso, Texas.

JAA has over twenty years of industrial hearing conservation and noise control consulting experience.  In that time,  the major industrial corporations with whom we consult have achieved real progress in lowering employee sound exposures by establishing active, vital noise control processes, and making the noise control process part of a corporate philosophy and vision.  Our role in our clients' successes has been the development of methods and tools to help provide that corporate vision.

Equipped with the right tools and directed by a coherent vision, significant achievement in noise control occurs as an evolutionary process rather than as a reaction to individual problems.

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