OSHA announced Jan. 25 that it has temporarily withdrawn from review by the Office of Management and Budget its proposal to restore a column for work-related musculoskeletal disorders on employer injury and illness logs. OSHA has taken this action to seek greater input from small businesses on the impact of the proposal. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, MSDs accounted for 28 percent of all reported workplace injuries and illnesses requiring time away from work in 2009.

OSHA and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy will jointly hold a meeting to engage and listen to small businesses about the agency’s proposal. See the news release for more information.

The following is a question posed by a Workplace Integra client to our Director of Audiology, Dr. George Cook, Au.D., CCC-A.  Below is the question and Dr. Cook’s reply.

Dear Dr. Cook:

We understand the following OSHA program/monitoring guideline under 1910.95 (6):  Annual audiogram – At least annually after obtaining the baseline audiogram, the employer shall obtain a new audiogram for each employee exposed at or above an 8 hour twa of 85 db. 

We have approximately 30 employees in the administrative building office who do not go out into the plant intermittently as part of their job duties.  They may have taken a plant tour when initially interviewed or hired and possibly may take one or two tours during their tenure here for various reasons, but other than that, they are not and will not be in noise exposure areas intermittently of 80 – 130 db on an 8 hr. twa; therefore, how often should we perform audiograms on them?  

We do perform audiogram baseline on these employees too within six months of their hire date in case they do go on another plant tour with their dept. for whatever reason or in case they put in and take a job transfer with our company that might expose them to noise areas in our plant.

Hoping your professional knowledge and/or experience can help us conclude this matter.

Reply:

These employees would not have to be tested for OSHA compliance. Wellness testing is always a good idea. However, when wellness testing and changes occur, the recording standard requires a case-by-case be done to determine if the change is occupational, regardless of exposure level. Knowing an employee does not have noise exposure is a certain indication that the change is not work related.

I like wellness testing because on the outside chance the company has or is causing hearing change, certainly they want to know about it and can stop the change process. Wellness testing is done a some interval. 36 months, 60 months. Etc. Scheduling wellness testing can be done on Workplace Applications by going to the ‘Add, Edit Hearing Test’ screen and changing the retest months to, say 60 months, and saving the screen. I think 3, 4, or 5 years is a good idea, depending on the test load and staffing. The important thing to me is the employee be retested at some interval so we can pick up any changes regardless of the cause, thus a hearing conservation program for all employees.

How often does OSHA require a sound booth to be calibrated?

OSHA requires that the audiometric testing room – which can be an open room – be no louder than the maximum permissible ambient noise levels specified in the OSHA Noise Standard.  These noise levels are:

        500Hz        1000Hz        2000Hz            4000Hz         8000Hz

     40 dB SPL    40 dB SPL    47 dB SPL      57 dB SPL    62 dB SPL

 As a practical matter, it is not difficult to meet these numbers in a reasonably quiet and distraction-free room.  However, there is near universal agreement among professional hearing conservationists that these maximum permissible noise levels are too high, particularly for persons with hearing loss who often have difficulty with background noise interfering with audiometric testing.  Voluntary compliance with the more stringent criteria set forth in ANSI S3.1-1999 is recommended when feasible.  These noise levels are:

125Hz   250Hz   500Hz  1000Hz  2000Hz  4000Hz  8000Hz

39dB SPL  25dB SPL  21dB SPL 26dB SPL 34dB SPL 37dB SPL 37dB SPL

So back to the question:  how often does OSHA require measurement of background noise levels?  The answer is once, then again if something changes.

So what might change?

Relocating the booth, for one, but there is room for judgment.  If the booth is moved from one corner of the room to another, there may be no need to re-measure the background noise levels unless there is reason to believe that the noise levels are higher in the new location.

Practically, what will change the most over time is the booth itself – it will get older.  This means that the seal around the door will eventually degrade letting more sound into the booth.  More importantly, the ventilation fan will grow noisier over time and eventually need replacement.  The fans are not expensive, but can be tricky to replace.  Please have your local maintenance person give it a try as a non-ventilated sound booth can become uncomfortably warm and “stuffy” in short order.  A claustrophobic person will certainly be uncomfortable in a non-ventilated sound booth.

Bear in mind that ventilation is a major noise source when testing in an open room.  Be sure to test the background noise levels with the air conditioning/heating system on and off.  Background noise levels may be too high when the AC or heat is running.

For these reasons, it is recommended that background noise levels be measured at least every two years.  The technician providing an on-site audiometer calibration will have the necessary equipment (a rather expensive sound level meter with an octave-band analyzer) to conduct this background noise measurement.

I use a mobile service provider for annual audiometric testing.  Are they required to check background noise levels?

OSHA requires that all audiometric testing done for the purpose of compliance with the OSHA Noise Standard must be conducted in an environment where background noise levels do not exceed the maximum permissible (see the first chart above).  Mobile service providers must verify that background noise levels do not exceed the maximum, and must do this at each location where testing takes place.

Mobile services

What about documentation?

Important!  Acoustic and exhaustive audiometer calibrations must be documented on a form listing the specific functions tested and the results.  Similarly, background noise levels in the audiometric testing room must be documented as well.  This documentation is required by the OSHA Noise Standard and can be important in other legal proceedings (Workers’ Compensation, for instance).

The daily biological calibration and self-listening checks should also be documented.  This provides evidence that the audiometer functioned appropriately the day of the test.

How long should you keep these documents?  The recommended time is 30 years plus the employees time at the company- as these documents could be used in Workers’ Compensation cases involving long-term employees.

Can I do my own audiometer calibrations and testing room background noise level checks?

Certainly, you can and should do the daily listening checks described above.

There are no regulatory requirements stipulating who can and cannot do acoustic/exhaustive audiometer calibrations and background noise level checks in the audiometric testing room.  Anyone can do it with proper training and the right equipment.  The real issue is the cost of the equipment.  An audiometer calibration kit can easily run five times the cost of the audiometer.  Practically, only manufacturers and service providers doing many calibrations annually find it affordable to spend this much money on audiometer calibration equipment and to pay the cost associated with having that equipment calibrated annually.

Does Workplace INTEGRA provide these services?

Yes.  On-site exhaustive audiometer calibration checks and audiometric testing room background noise level checks are provided by:

• A licensed and certified Occupational Audiologist during the annual Audiologist Plant Visit, if this service is contracted
• A Technician for clients not receiving an Audiologist Plant Visit. For on-site services, see our website for our geographic service area: calibration services

Alternatively, audiometers can be shipped to our offices in Greensboro, NC or Indianapolis, IN for an exhaustive calibration check.  Request this service

Source: The News & Observer, By Sarah Avery, Staff Writer

It drives people nuts.

Ringing. Buzzing. Hissing.

For people with tinnitus, a phantom sound only they can hear plagues their every waking moment. Imagine a Salvation Army bell ringer camped out in your head every day, all day.

Despite afflicting an estimated 50 million people in the United States, often as a result of injury or repeated exposure to loud noises, the condition has no cures and few effective treatments, though a newer approach is now available at Duke University.

The intervention, called Neuromonics, retrains people to manage how they hear the internal sound. But it’s not covered by insurance and is expensive – about $4,500 for a device that resembles a portable music player and for sessions with an audiologist to tailor the treatment.

Teri Kim, 48, of Cary, NC started the therapy in August, and almost quit a month into it when she still hadn’t gotten relief from the high-pitched whine that has blared in her head for years. Then she gradually began having good days and even good weeks as the whine began to diminish.

Click here to read article in its entirety.

OSHA announced Jan. 25 that it has temporarily withdrawn from review by the Office of Management and Budget its proposal to restore a column for work-related musculoskeletal disorders on employer injury and illness logs. OSHA has taken this action to seek greater input from small businesses on the impact of the proposal. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, MSDs accounted for 28 percent of all reported workplace injuries and illnesses requiring time away from work in 2009.

OSHA and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy will jointly hold a meeting to engage and listen to small businesses about the agency’s proposal. See the news release for more information.

Source: www.breitbart.com

Scientists have found a way to ease chronic ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus, by stimulating a neck nerve and playing sounds to reboot the brain, according to research published Wednesday.
There is currently no cure for tinnitus, which can range from annoying to debilitating and affects as many as 23 million adults in the United States, including one in 10 seniors and 40 percent of military veterans.

For Gloria Chepko, 66, who has suffered from tinnitus since she was four years old, the sound she describes as “like crickets… but also bell-like,” gets worse when she is tired.

“It’s awful,” she said. “Sometimes it is very loud, and it will get loud if I am under stress or if I have been going for a very long time and I am fatigued,” she said.

“If my mind is tired and I sit down I will only hear this sound.”

For some people, such as military veterans who are left with hearing damage after exposure to loud blasts and gunfire, the noise — which could also sound like roaring, whooshing or clicking — interferes with their ability to lead a normal life.

The US Veterans Administration spends one billion dollars per year on disability payments related to tinnitus, the most common service-related ailment in soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, industry experts say.

Scientists believe the disorder is caused by hearing loss or nerve damage, to which the brain tries but fails to adjust.

Click here for article in its entirety.