Hearing Protection in the Workplace

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that four million workers go to work each day in damaging noise. Ten million people in the U.S. have a noise-related hearing loss. Twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise each year. Occupational hearing loss is the most common work related illness in the United States. Approximately 22 million U.S. workers exposed to hazardous noise levels at work, and an additional 9 million exposed to ototoxic chemicals. An estimated $242 million is spent annually on worker’s compensation for hearing loss disability.

NIOSH recommends removing hazardous noise from the workplace whenever possible and using hearing protectors in those situations where dangerous noise exposures have not yet been controlled or eliminated. Over the past few decades, much has been learned about the implementation of hearing loss prevention programs. The CDC recommends that the eight components of a successful hearing loss prevention program include: 1) noise exposure monitoring, 2) engineering and administrative controls, 3) audiometric evaluation, 4) use of hearing protection devices, 5) education and motivation 6) record keeping, 7) program evaluation, and 8) program audit.

In addition to your company’s specific workplace hearing prevention plan, SafetySkills offers a Hearing Conservation online safety training course. This course is designed to fulfill annual hearing conservation and protection training requirements created by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. This course will help you to understand the effects of noise; the purpose, advantages, and disadvantages of various types of hearing protection; selection, fitting, and how to care for protectors; and the purpose of audiometric testing. When the course has been completed, you should be able to identify the definitions of ‘noise’ and ‘noise levels,’ and recognize the causes of hearing loss and the measures created by OSHA to prevent it. You should also be able to recognize the common personal hearing protection devices and their advantages and disadvantages, and recognize the basic requirements of audiometric testing and their purposes. This course is also available in Spanish.

The Hearing Conservation online course can be part of a company-wide training initiative or taken by individuals who are looking for some additional training outside of their workplace. After successful completion of the course, you will be able to print out a certificate of completion.

For more information about SafetySkills and other safety training topics, please visit us at https://safetyskills.com.