Why Your Company Needs To Be Aware Of The Noise You Create
There are many different industries across America, from manufacturing to agriculture, and even the large amount of musicians that ply their trade in every city and town across the country. One thing that a lot of these industries have in common is that they produce a lot of noise. From the bangs of machinery to the bangs on the snare drum, many people who work in these industries can be affected by hearing loss if they are kept in this environment long enough. That is why organizing an industrial hearing test for your workplace is a smart idea.
Sustained Noise Does Damage
In the past, the hearing of workers was not often taken into account when designing safety rules. They were more about stopping people from getting physically injured on-site, not preventing consequences that could happen ten, fifteen, twenty years plus down the road. Nowadays, OSHA is concerned with all sorts of injuries that only present themselves after a sustained period in a dangerous environment. Hearing is one of those areas that has come under scrutiny more and more, until laws were introduced that stipulate everyone who is in an environment that has an average noise threshold of 85 decibels, to meet efforts to protect employee hearing.
How Do You Know How Noisy Your Business Is?
There are many services that allow you to measure the overall noise of your business when it is in full operation. The best way is to involve a professional industrial hearing test that has all the tools and equipment to figure out how loud your environment is and to test those who work in it day in and day out. If you find out you are above the aforementioned 85 average decibels for most workers' shifts, then you will have to immediately stop what you are doing until you find a way to begin caring for your workers' long-term hearing.
What Happens After The Industrial Hearing Test?
After all your workers have been tested, it will depend significantly on the results. If there is early hearing loss found in some of your workers, they will have to go further down the line and visit more audiologists for a precise diagnosis. You will have to start putting in place more stringent noise prevention methods and perhaps talk with a third-party consultancy firm to get their advice. There are ways to manage the noise you make, but first, you need to test to see if you fit into this group or not.
