Page 21 - OHS, November/December 2020

PPE: HEARING PROTECTION
Eight Tips for Hearing Testing Day
There’s no official checklist or cheat sheet to make sure hearing testing is an effortless experience—some things come with experience and time. BY CHAD COLEMAN
www.ohsonline.com
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 | Occupational Health & Safety 15
Your annual hearing testing is around the corner, and you are working hard to ensure this integral part of your hearing conservation program is successful.
There are various ways of ensuring you are in compliance. Offsite clinic visits, your onsite nurse or a mobile hearing testing partner that visits your site are several examples of testing that are available. While there are pros and cons to each, they all ensure the hearing of your workforce is protected and safe.
While the OSHA standard on occupational noise exposure is your guide for compliance, there’s no official checklist or cheat sheet to make sure hearing testing is an effortless experience for you and your team. Some things only come with experience and time. Here is a list of ideas, tips and advice compiled to help you prepare for an organized and efficient testing process.
Scheduling is Key
It all starts with scheduling. This is key, as hearing testing is an annual event. Compliance testing can approach rapidly and you want to be ready. It’s never too soon to think about and start to schedule your testing. Give yourself plenty of time—you want to be fully scheduled a month before your testing date. Use technology to stay organized. Once you have a date on the calendar, set reminders on your laptop or phone. Creating a project through a productivity tool is also a helpful method to stay on track.
Just like anything else, it’s all about preparation when it comes to success for a smooth operation. If you are working with a mobile testing partner that will come onsite, know the details beforehand, such as the number of employees to be tested, individual employee needs, flow rates and logistical requirements. When using a clinic, stagger the clinic visits across time to ensure your workers have shifts covered and production still runs smoothly on the site.
The key to success? Finding a partner that communicates with you. You want to understand all that is required of you and your workforce: a month out, a week out and the day before testing. Having someone you can rely on to guide you during this process is a benefit to all safety managers.
Limit Exposure Before Testing Day
Ideally, your employees are treating every day like testing day by limiting their exposure to loud noises with the use of protective equipment or through distancing. We all know that this is not the reality.
However, when it comes to the day before testing, limiting noise exposure becomes necessary. In fact, controlling occupational noise exposure 14 hours before testing is required by OSHA for anyone undergoing their baseline test.
It’s strongly encouraged for all employees to avoid activities that involve loud or excessive noise such motorcycling, setting off fireworks, shooting guns or attending concerts without the use of hearing protection the day, or days, leading to hearing testing day.
Time of Testing During Your Shift
Hearing testing should be conducted throughout an employee’s work shift. As such, it’s imperative to arrange testing later in the work schedule, rather than earlier. A test later in a work shift is the best way to assess how well the hearing protection portion of the
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