Page 36 - 2016Spring

Preventing Occupational Hearing Loss
noise problems related to compressed air, leaky or cracked hoses were replaced. New or redesigned equipment reduced the air volume required for operations. For one area, the do- simetry for workers showed a decrease from 113 to 90 dBA for an 8-hr TWA. Reducing noise saved money (Morata and Meinke, 2016).
Advantages of Implementing Buy Quiet
The NIOSH Buy Quiet initiative is relatively new. In 2014, the NIOSH Buy Quiet topic web page was developed. Pro- motional materials are available for download and printing. A few remaining tools have been developed, but have not yet been released: the Buy Quiet web tool, a Cost Benefit Cal- culator, and the Global Database of Noise Levels. Buy Quiet is a better approach to effect change because it happens due to intrinsic motivation and not as a result of externally en- forced regulations. The Safe-in-Sound Award has success- fully identified companies that exhibit excellence in hearing loss prevention and innovation. As of 2015, twelve com- panies have been recognized by the Safe-in-Sound Award (Safe-In-Sound, 2015). Receipt of the award is just the be- ginning and fuel to continuously improve the workplace and protect the most valuable resource, the employee.
by Design allow workers to become engaged in solutions to improve the safety and operation of their workplace.
Conclusions
A hearing loss prevention program has to become more than just a means to document the progression of hearing loss within a workforce. Many excellent resources exist to aid the health and safety professional, noise control engi- neer, audiologist, and acoustician to better understand how to effectively reduce the incidence of noise induced hearing loss. OSHA has recently revised their web pages for noise and hearing loss, (https://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/ noise/exposure/index.html). The National Hearing Conser- vation Association (http://www.hearingconservation.org) is devoted to helping people understand how hearing loss can be prevented. Finally, the NIOSH Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention topic page can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/ niosh/topics/noise/. If the problem of noise-induced hear- ing loss is going to be conquered, a paradigm shift is neces- sary to reduce the reliance upon hearing protection devices, to identify quiet equipment, and to engineer effective noise control solutions.
Biosketch
William J. Murphy is a Captain in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and is the co- ordinator of the Hearing Loss Preven- tion research program for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati, OH. He received
his PhD in Physics from Purdue University. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the chair of the Technical Committee for Noise, and the former chair of the ASA’s ANSI S12 Accredited Standards Committee on Noise. He resides in Lawrenceburg, IN, with his wife Debbie and three children.
Disclaimer: The views and the opinions expressed within this paper are those of the author and do not represent any offi- cial policy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or the US Environmental Protection Agency. Mention of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by NIOSH. In addition, citations to websites external to NIOSH do not constitute NIOSH endorsement of the sponsoring orga- nizations or their programs or products.
What are some of the costs of not implementing Buy Quiet? First and foremost, OSHA requires that workers be enrolled in a hearing conservation program if they are exposed to more than 90-dBA TWA. The expense of maintaining the hearing conservation program is not trivial. Noisy work- places lead to decreased productivity and increased worker absenteeism and turnover. Estill (2015) has analyzed the incidence of workers’ compensation claims and associated premiums and the relation to accidents in the workplace. For companies with noise levels of between 85 and 90 dBA, the risk of workplace injury was significantly greater than those with noise levels less than 80. Improved safety practices (e.g., noise control) can yield a positive return on investment. In addition, businesses will realize a reduced cost for operat- ing a hearing loss prevention program—reduced expenses for hearing protection, annual hearing tests, recordkeeping, follow-up audiometry, and workers compensation expenses.
Implementing Buy Quiet offers distinct advantages. Buy Quiet and Quiet by Design can be included in job propos- als to demonstrate that the best available technology is be- ing used. Reducing occupational noise results in a safer and healthier environment while simultaneously reducing the risk of hearing loss amongst workers. Buy Quiet and Quiet
34 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2016