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3 Essentials to Increase Your Workforce’s Hearing Safety

Karl.B • Jan 15, 2019

Is your job site a noisy place? Do you work with heavy machinery, power tools, or any other excessively noisy equipment? When it comes to workplace safety, every employer needs to be aware of the dangers to their worker’s hearing safety , take steps to protect their hearing, and invest in industrial hearing protection. As an employer, you need to learn about the costs of workplace injury, and follow the 3 essentials to increasing your workforce’s health and hearing safety.

 

The Cost of Workplace Injury

One of the costs of running a business are the costs of keeping your employees safe on the jobsite, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has strict guidelines all employers must follow. Research shows that workplace injury costs more than $170 billion every year! These costs can be from reduced productivity, fines, fees, and medical bills. In fact, the costs related to workplace injury can account for 6 to 9% of the project’s cost! However, if your business implements the recommended health and safety programs, this drops to just 2.5%. It pays to plan ahead, invest in your employees health, and increase their hearing safety.

 

1: Education

Your first line of defense against workplace hearing loss is proper education. Your workers risk developing permanent and severe hearing loss due to workplace activities, and you could find yourself liable for their hearing loss. Mandate training and education sessions so all of your employees are aware of the risks to their hearing health, and know what steps they can take to protect their hearing. Encourage them to wear hearing protection at all times when at work, and also stress the importance of wearing hearing protection during noisy leisure activities such as music concerts, sports events, or when visiting the shooting range.

 

2: Changes to the Workplace

One effective way to protect your employees hearing is to make changes to the workplace to distance your employees from unnecessary noise. This can be through placing loud equipment as far away from your staff as possible, or mandating rest periods so your employees have a chance to get away from the noise for a few minutes throughout the day.

 

3: Wearing Hearing Protection

If you can’t create more distance between your workers and the source of the noise, you need to provide your employees with industrial hearing protection. Hearing loss due to exposure to excessive noise is totally preventable, so safeguard the hearing of all your staff members. How do you know when your staff should be wearing hearing protection? If you have to yell to be heard by the person standing next to you, the jobsite is dangerously loud, and you should all be wearing industrial hearing protection.

You can provide your staff with foam earplugs, but if your workplace is extremely loud, we recommend that you invest in industrial hearing protection, such as earmuffs or digital hearing protection. These are a favorite among employees, since they don’t block soft sounds from reaching your ears, and you’ll be able to hear coworkers without removing the ear protection. This means that when loud noises start again you won’t have to fumble with earplugs, but can comfortably leave the hearing protection in your ears the entire day.

 

How Anadyne Can Help You

Improving your employees hearing conditions protects their hearing, and actually increases productivity, since your staff will be able to communicate effectively. An initial investment will translate into far lower health care costs, and fewer workplace injuries. Want to make sure you’re doing the right think for your employees hearing health? Anadyne performs comprehensive, onsite hearing screening, so you can ensure you’re following OSHA guidelines without decreasing productivity or disrupting your work day.

We’ll come to you, and will schedule tests at the times that are the most convenient for you. We know the ins and outs of OSHA mandated hearing testing and compliance , and we can provide training to your employees as well as recommending sound engineering that will save your employees hearing.  When it comes to wearable hearing protection, we have a wide selection of industrial hearing protection from standard earplugs to custom ear protection that you and your staff will love.

By Karrin Brandsen 07 Mar, 2024
6 C's of Hearing Protection: Anadyne provides custom hearing protection designed to exceed your expectations. By taking an impression of each ear, we ensure a perfect fit for everyone. These devices are the most compliant available and meet or exceed standards for CE, ANSI, NAL, and KC. Our hearing protection devices allow you to stay connected and protected. Communication is simple via radio, Bluetooth, phone calls, or face-to-face conversations without compromising your hearing health. The devices are incredibly convenient to use - simply insert them into each ear with the easy-to-grasp handle, and you're ready to go. Our hearing protection devices significantly reduce waste by eliminating throw-away foam plugs which are often seen littered around the facility. With the 6-year guarantee, and a lifetime of up to 10 years, these devices can save over 50% of your hearing protection costs. Anadyne believes in the 6 C's for the perfect hearing protection device: comfort, compliance, communication, convenience, clean & green, and cost-effectiveness. Questions? Call today to find out more: 888.972.4420
By Karrin Brandsen 07 Feb, 2024
Baselines and their purpose: As an employer, it's important to understand the complete process of getting a baseline hearing test for your employees. A baseline test is the test that establishes an employee's benchmark for future hearing test comparison. In many cases, OSHA allows up to 6 months for this, but by doing it earlier, it allows any pre-existing hearing loss to be documented. After the baseline test, hearing tests are conducted at least annually to monitor for any changes in the employee's hearing health. Wait, there's a few more steps! After obtaining a baseline test, there are more steps that employers need to follow for compliance. Once the baseline test is complete, the results need to be sent to the provider of record (if contracted out) so that they can be screened for any problems and entered into your company's hearing conservation database. This way, any unclear data, possible STS (Standard Threshold Shift), or recordable STSs (shifts in hearing levels that are significant enough to be recorded on the injury log) can be identified. By following through with these steps, you can ensure your company is complying with this part of the OSHA requirements. Questions? Call today to find out more: 888.972.4420
By Karrin Brandsen 05 Jan, 2024
Follow -up on non-recordable and recordable STSs: As an employer, it’s critical that you take the necessary steps and follow up deadlines regarding employees’ hearing testing. If an STS, or standard threshold shift, is identified during a hearing test, OSHA requires employees to be notified of the results within 21 days and ensure they receive re-training. An STS occurs when an employee’s hearing threshold changes enough at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz in one or both ears, in comparison to their baseline audiogram. STS’s recordable on your OSHA-300 log should be done within seven days of the hearing test. Risks that come with STSs and ways to lessen the risk: If the STS meets recordability, it can negatively impact things like the company’s risk matrix. Even if the STS is non-recordable, OSHA still requires that the employer retrains the employee. However, you can avoid false STSs or recordable STS issues by ensuring that immediately preceding annual testing, employees have not had a cold, have not been listening to loud music, and have not been wearing earbuds. Earbuds are not typically suited to the industrial workplace because their level of sound can exceed 85 dB and are not typically ANSI-rated as hearing protection. Why Anadyne? By investing in quality hearing protection and mobile hearing testing services, you can save time and money while ensuring your employees’ safety and your companies productivity. At Anadyne, we offer a tag team system that allows production to continue while employees are being tested, reducing downtime and interruptions. Quality hearing protection is critical because, while throw-away earplugs may be cheaper upfront, they are only good for one use. Anadyne’s hearing protection steadily pays for itself after the first year and saves you money in the long run. Taking the extra time to invest in quality hearing protection and mobile hearing testing services is essential for protecting your employees and your company. Don’t wait until it’s too late; make hearing safety a priority today. Call today to find out more: 888.972.4420
By Wayne Brandsen 07 Dec, 2023
Is your company struggling to fit all the tests into a few hectic days of the year? With the end of the year fast approaching, it's no secret that most companies are under pressure to meet deadlines and handle unexpected events. But don't let hearing tests be an added burden. The best time to conduct hearing tests depends on your company's field of work. Some industries may have busier seasons, while others are more regular throughout the year. However, with the holiday season just around the corner, it's easy to forget non-regular tasks such as annual hearing tests or re-tests. This can cause confusion, disruption, and inconvenience, especially when trying to fit all the tests into a few days. What is the solution? What if we told you there's a better way? Did you know Anadyne has a program to coordinate your hearing tests for the year, so you don't have to worry about whether everyone got done? This way, you won't miss any employees who might have been absent due to illness, vacation, or other reasons. So why wait? Schedule a consultation about hearing tests with Anadyne today to ensure a hassle-free 2024 for you and your employees! Call today to find out more: 888.972.4420
15 Oct, 2023
When you have several hundred employees, planning a testing schedule can feel overwhelming. Who should be first? What room or building should you start with? How do you approach such a daunting task? It gets messy quickly, especially with multiple shifts. Even worse is when you make a plan, you get it going, you’re trying to get through every hearing test in one week and the next thing you know people don’t show up. The truck leaves on Friday, and Friday’s schedule is already full. What now? It’s time to get Anadyne involved. This is what we do every day. We have a proven system that works. We know it’s difficult to interrupt production and interfere with workflow. Nobody wants to do it. We’ll take the heat for you. We make the schedule so there’s less pushback from your team. Should we sort it by last name, birth date, department, or shift? Let us walk you through it. We’ll take the head, do the scheduling, and help to reintegrate those that have missed. Alleviate these challenges by working with a trusted partner. Call today to find out more: 888.972.4420
By Karl Brandsen 29 Sep, 2023
The hearing rating shown on HPDs packaging is often inaccurate. When it comes to protecting our hearing in noisy environments, we often rely on the ratings provided on the packaging of earplugs and other hearing protection devices (HPDs). These ratings can be deceiving and may not accurately reflect real-world performance. In fact, the figure on the packaging is nothing more than a rough estimate of the protection you’re actually getting. While some users might achieve the stated level of noise reduction, many do not. This disparity in real-world effectiveness has led experts to emphasize the need of hearing protection fit testing. Fit testing is the key to bridging the gap between laboratory estimates of attenuation and the actual attenuation achieved by workers as they wear their protectors in their daily routines. Fit testing is the key to bridging the gap between attenuation estimates and the actual attenuation. So why is fit testing so essential? The answer is simple: it’s the only way to determine how much noise reduction a person actually gets from their hearing protection device. As mentioned earlier, the rating on the packaging can be misleading. It might provide a point of comparison between different products, showing that Product A offers more or less protection than Product B. However, relying on this rating, even if it is de-rated to account for real-world use, is not reliable when protecting your hearing. One of the primary reasons for the wide range of attenuation provided by any given earplug is the uniqueness of each individual’s ear canal and the way they insert the device. Factors like ear shape, size, and the method of insertion can significantly affect the earplug’s performance. That’s why it’s important to test HPDs on the individuals who will be using them. Hearing protection fit testing involves assessing how well an earplug fits within an individual’s ear canal. By doing this, you can determine the actual protection that person is receiving from the device. Fit testing takes into account the real-world variables that impact effectiveness, such as the seal between the earplug and the ear canal. This method offers a much more accurate representation of the protection provided by the HPD, tailored to the specific user. In conclusion, if you work in a noisy environment or use hearing protection regularly, don’t rely solely on the rating displayed on the packaging of your chosen device. Instead, consider the importance of hearing protection fit testing. It’s the only way to ensure that you’re getting the level of protection you need to protect your hearing. Investing in proper fit testing will preserve your hearing for years to come. Want to know more? Contact an Anadyne rep today.
By Wayne Brandsen 14 Aug, 2023
Coordinating hearing tests. It's complicated. If you work in a large organization, you know there’s inevitably employee turnover and a continual flow of people coming and going. This can make things complicated when it comes to hearing tests. The new people need hearing tests and those that have left are probably still on a list somewhere from your last hearing test. This leaves your safety team with the headache of combing through old records to figure out who needs a hearing test next. You need a program. That program is one of the reasons Anadyne exists. It takes a program to screen through all the old records and new records; finding out when hearing tests that were last done, reviewing the current employment roster and the like. You’re now left with the complex reconciliation task of finding out who has been tested already this year, what legacy employees have not been tested, and what new employees you haven’t gotten any data on. What a headache! We can help. We have a program for that. Anadyne can provide a complete schedule, clear list of names and everything you need to answer questions; that is who needs hearing testing next. Our team will meticulously comb through all your records and create a comprehensive list of current employees, including when they had their last test and who has never had a hearing test. This allows us to do the next step of our program; figuring out who most urgently needs to be tested and creating a schedule accordingly. No need to panic when the bus comes back. Anadyne coordinates everything for you. Want to know more? Contact an Anadyne rep today.
By Wayne Brandsen 18 May, 2023
We can help.
By Wayne Brandsen 26 Apr, 2023
There is a solution.
By Karl Brandsen 24 Mar, 2023
Overprotection is an overlooked problem in many workplaces. Learn how to resolve the conflict of workers who need to wear hearing protection but still hear speech or warning signals. Employees at your company need to wear hearing protectors, so you give them the highest level of protection available, right? Not always. If you believe that one ear plug or muff is pretty much like the next, with the noise-reduction rating (NRR) as the only difference, you may be putting employees at risk if they need to communicate with co-workers or hear warning signals. Overprotection In many cases, wearing a hearing protection device (HPD) with too high of an NRR could cause overprotection, which is too much attenuation (decibel reduction in sound power and pressure levels) of a specific noise caused by inadequate hearing protector selection. There are situations where a particular hearing protector may attenuate high frequencies (speech and signals) substantially more than low frequencies (ambient or background noise). The result is that important consonant sounds of speech may be unintelligible, and warning signals such as backup alarms on forklifts might not be heard. Communication Workers with too much hearing protection may not be able to communicate with a co-worker and might remove their HPDs to talk or, if they wear ear plugs, not fully insert the plug into their ear, both of which could cause noise-induced hearing loss. In industrial settings, low-frequency sounds tend to mask or obscure mid and high-frequency sounds, which leads to decreased speech intelligibility. Warning signals As with speech, the ability to hear warning signals, alarms, and machinery operating noise can be diminished when wearing the wrong type of HPD. With machinery noise, for example, the operator needs to be able to hear a signal that would indicate a malfunction. Solutions What is the proper type of HPD that allows the wearer to hear necessary speech and signals? The simple answer is a protector that has moderate attenuation of mid- and high-frequency sounds and the proper NRR for the situation. Arriving at a complete answer, however, is not so simple. The effectiveness of a hearing protector is highly dependent on wearing time. According to EN 458, when someone removes an HPD for even a brief time in the noise exposure, the effective protection provided is significantly reduced. Whenever possible, decrease the distance between the speaker and the listener and encourage the use of hand and facial cues, although these are ancillary aids that should not take the place of speech. Include material on speech intelligibility and detection of signals in employee training and stress the positive effects that the proper use of HPDs can have on the audibility of speech and signals. Encourage employees to speak more forcefully to overcome the tendency to lower their voices while wearing HPDs. The increased vocal effort, however, should not be continued for long periods because of the potential to irritate the speaker’s vocal tract. Encourage input and feedback from employees regarding speech intelligibility (and the audibility of signals) so problem areas can be identified before an accident occurs. Improve message content by encouraging and implementing consistent sentence construction for standard messages. Workers should avoid the use of single letters and use whole words (phonetic alphabet) or complete sentences whenever possible. In the end, the burden falls on the employer to understand how to select the appropriate type of hearing protection for workers who need to communicate or hear specific noises. Contact an Anadyne rep today to find the right solution for your team.
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