When you think of severe injuries that happen in the workplace, most people’s first thoughts would be cuts, bruises, broken bones, but have you thought about the importance of protecting your hearing at work? According to Safe Work Australia, industrial deafness accounts for 3.6% of work-related injuries and 1 in 5 people are likely to work in an environment where they are exposed to hazardous noise levels every day. While there are general guidelines on what noise thresholds are above safety levels for an individual worker, it is important to note that long-term exposure to loud noises will result in noise-induced hearing loss. Symptoms include not being able to hear others at arms’ length or ringing in the ears which can reduce a persons’ quality of life leading to isolation from society and mental illness. That is why it is important to take measures to reduce workplace noise and improving strategies for protecting noise-exposed workers.
In order to reduce noise in the workplace, a business must work through the hierarchy of controls to help protect workers from long term noise exposure. The hierarchy of controls includes the following with the top being the most effective to the bottom being the least.
The first two control measures to implement in the workplace are eliminating and substituting the noise source. While these two measures tend to be the most difficult to implement in an existing process, they are the most effective at reducing harmful noise levels. Eliminating involves removing the cause of noise completely whether it is avoiding the use of certain machinery, eliminating the impact between hard objects or surfaces, outsourcing the noisy work process or moving the noise source away from other work activities. This stage is the easiest to implement when a business is in its introduction phase. Substituting involves replacing noisy machinery with alternatives, for instance, swapping old machinery for new that produce less noise.
If noise is still unsafe for the ears, then it’s time to implement some engineering controls. This may include using plastic bumpers to prevent metals clashing, installing sound walls/curtains and adding noise barriers with silencers.
The last two control stages are the lowest stages in the hierarchy of controls and should not be used exclusively to control risk. These lower stages assist in the control of risk but are rarely enough if used alone. You may apply administrative controls to limit your exposure to harmful noise levels at work such as organising a schedule for employees so that noise is produced only at a particular time, keeping workers as far away as possible from the noise source, notifying employees that noise will be produced at a certain time frame and properly maintaining equipment to reduce noise.
The final step to controlling noise levels at your workplace is to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). This involves everyone at the workplace, as well as visitors, wearing hearing protection. There are several types of hearing protectors to choose from and each hearing protector is selected based on personal preference and workplace environment. For more information on PPE please read: “Different Types of Hearing Protection”.
Need some help with controlling workplace noise, contact Attune Hearing today to discuss possibilities in protecting your hearing at your workplace: https://www.attune.com.au/workplace-services/education-and-training/
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