Page 20 - Occupational Health & Safety, March 2019

HEARING PROTECTION
5. Threshold should be set at either 80 dBA for assessment of a hearing conserva- tion program or 90 dBA for assessing for the need for administrative or engineering controls. It is important to remember to at- tempt to capture the worker’s entire work shift for the best and most accurate results.
Controlling Hazardous Noise
Once the data has been gathered and cal- culated, action may be required as part of the OSHA 1910.95 occupational noise ex- posure standard, depending on the noise levels mentioned in the regulatory portion of this article summarized in Table 3.
Employers have the obligation to pro- vide workplaces that are free from rec- ognized hazards. So then, what do we do about excessive noise? Well, let’s go back to the basics by utilizing the hierarchy of haz- ard controls:
■ Substitution/elimination. The first thing we always want to attempt is elimi- nation or substitution of the offending pro- cess. Ask yourself the question, is it feasible to eliminate the processes in favor of one
that is produces less noise?
■ Engineering. Examples include
noise enclosure, insulation, and/or applica- tion of acoustical absorbent material.
■ Administrative. You can use job rota- tion or a policy that reduces noise exposure. ■ Personal protective equipment. This includes ear plugs, canal caps, and ear muffs. All too often it is seen that institutions will jump right to PPE while bypassing the
other components of the hierarchy, how- ever, this is not the course prescribed by OSHA—think of it more as a Band-Aid on a bigger wound. This furthermore so- lidifies the importance of involving safety in the design of new processes. Simple adjustments in the design phase can help eliminate or reduce the amount of nuisance noise. However, that is a discussion for an- other article.
Conclusion
Industrial noise is almost always a fact of production. As professionals in this field, we need to keep a keen and educated eye on industrial noise and how it affects our workforce populations. By reducing noise exposures, we succeed in conserving one of life’s most precious resources.
Andrew J. Goodwin, MS, CSP, CFPS, CHMM, COHC, is a safety and health pro- fessional with UGI Energy Services (Wyo- missing, Pa.). He has a master’s in Safety from Columbia Southern University and can be reached at Agoodwin@ugies.com.
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