Are you listening? According to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation and Guidelines, employers are required to provide hearing-loss prevention programs, monitor noise levels and conduct annual hearing tests for workers exposed to hazardous noise levels to prevent permanent hearing damage. Hazardous noise levels are defined as 85 decibels in the A scale for eight hours or the equivalent; the A scale is used for measuring environmental noise. All workers are responsible for wearing appropriate hearing protection and taking part in their employer’s hearing-loss prevention program. Since 2006 there have been more than 41,000 accepted claims for noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) in British Columbia.

Employers can take measures to prevent noise induced hearing loss:

• Ensure all workers who are at risk are wearing sufficient hearing protection that fits, and that they understand how to properly wear it.
• Make sure workers insert or wear the correct hearing protection prior to entering a noisy environment and wear it until after exiting the noisy location.
• Rotate workers to different positions so they spend less time in noisy environments.
• Identify potential engineering controls to mitigate risk of exposure.
• Ensure workers have their hearing tested and are aware of their hearing-test results.