Issue |
Hearing Conservation |
Hearing Loss Prevention |
Why do anything? |
 | Compliance |
|
| Eliminate occupational noise
induced hearing loss by effective use of resources |
|
Conduct Monitoring |
| Dosimetry and area monitoring |
| Identifies workers for HCP
inclusion |
| Use to select hearing protection
|
| Re-monitor after changes or
occasionally |
|
| Regularly scheduled, annual or
biannual, organization structured task based ex-posure assessment monitoring (T-BEAM) |
| Worker interaction with noise
sources defined |
| Information provided to empower
workers to protect themselves |
| Drives noise abatement
engineering processes |
|
Who is Included? |
| Inclusion limited to known
areas, jobs, or people found to be regularly exposed >85 dB(A) |
|
| Organization structured T-BEAM
monitoring strategy identifies workers at risk |
| Considers damage/risk criteria |
|
Provide Training |
| Compliance |
| One-size-fits-all pamphlets or
videos |
| Same training repeated annually |
|
| Enable worker to exercise
control over the hazard by understanding the hazard |
| Change worker attitude from
victim to self directed manager of their work environment |
|
Hearing Protection |
| Limited selection |
| Select highest available NRR |
| HPD policy guidelines and
enforcement are arbitrary management decisions |
|
| Collaborate with worker |
| Fit protectors based on hearing
ability and noise environment |
| Establish and enforce HPD use
policy requirements with workers |
| Worker ownership of HPD and HPD
policy |
|
Hearing Tests |
| Annual low cost screening
audiogram for known exposed workers |
| Documents record of employee
hearing loss |
|
| Quality audiogram for workers at
risk |
| Use hearing tests to intervene
with worker |
| Use hearing tests to improve
training, hearing protection, and engineering opportunities |
|
Program Process Management |
| Various disciplines take
unrelated actions |
| Independent record sets and
action plans maintained |
|
| Related information collated and
compared in database to provide trend analysis for management review and action |
|
Engineering |
| Engineering de-emphasized,
hearing protection distributed as a substitute for abatement program |
|
| Use monitoring results to
prioritize and select abatement priorities providing significant benefit to workers |
| Buy-Quiet Process |
|
Responsibility |
| Employer |
|
| Worker and Employer Partners
share responsibility for worker health |
|
Costs |
| $41 per exposed employee per
year (1983 dollars) |
|
| The same resource,
inflation adjusted (approx. $70 in 1996 dollars), effectively planned and well utilized can
provide HLPP |
|
Acceptable Program Outcome |
| Noise Induced Hearing Loss
(NIHL) |
| 5% STS rate acceptable |
| Hearing loss well documented |
| Employer bears full
responsibility |
|
| Zero tolerance for NIHL
(0.25% STS rate goal) |
| Intervene in every case;
where possible, before STS |
| Responsibility shared between
employer and worker partners |
|
