Noise dosimetry, audiometric testing, standard threshold shift evaluation and hearing protector adequacy — including the recordability determinations that most employers get wrong in the same direction every year.
When audiometric testing shows a shift, the standard requires specific follow-up — retesting, evaluation, notification, and protective action. Shifts identified by the testing vendor and never acted on is the most common finding in this area.
A standard threshold shift that also meets the hearing level criterion and is work-related is a recordable case. Employers systematically under-record this, which is both a recordkeeping violation and a loss of the signal that the program is failing.
A hearing protector rating must be derated and compared against the actual noise exposure to show the employee is adequately protected. Handing out whatever plugs are in the dispenser is not selection.
Excessive attenuation isolates workers from warning signals, speech and machine sounds, and drives non-use. The goal is a protected exposure in a target range, not the highest rating available.
New equipment, changed processes or production increases change noise exposure, and the standard requires repeat monitoring when changes may have affected exposures.
Annual training repeated verbatim, with no reference to the employees own audiogram results, produces no behavior change and no program credibility.
We establish exposure with full-shift dosimetry across the jobs and tasks that matter, define who is in the program, and select protectors with documented attenuation adequacy for the actual exposure — including checking that nobody is over-protected into non-use.
Then the loop that most programs are missing: audiometric testing coordination, standard threshold shift evaluation and follow-up, work-relatedness and recordability determinations reviewed by a CSP, employee notification, and repeat monitoring when the operation changes.
Enrollment obligations begin at an action level based on an eight-hour time-weighted average, with additional requirements at the permissible exposure level. The determination requires dosimetry, not spot meter readings.
A work-related standard threshold shift that also meets the specified hearing level criterion is recordable. Under-recording here is widespread and is both a recordkeeping issue and a lost warning signal.
It is rarely the right answer. Over-attenuation isolates workers from warning sounds and communication and drives non-compliance. Match protection to the actual exposure.
A qualified professional as specified in the standard — an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician, or a technician certified to administer tests under their supervision. We coordinate the testing and own the follow-up and recordability side.
When any change in production, process, equipment or controls may have increased exposures, or when protectors may no longer be adequate. Many employers monitor once and never again despite substantial changes.
Twenty minutes on what happened after them — that answer tells you whether you have a program or a testing vendor.
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