NOISE AND HEARING LOSS PREVENTION

Hearing Loss Prevention Programs

Over the past few decades, much has been learned about the implementation of hearing loss prevention programs. The eight components of a successful hearing loss prevention program include: 1) noise exposure monitoring, 2) engineering and administrative controls, 3) audiometric evaluation, 4) use of hearing protection devices, 5) education and motivation 6) record keeping, 7) program evaluation, and 8) program audit.

Resources

Hearing Conservation Toolbox
A resource for hearing conservation professionals, audiologists and occupational safety professionals for various educational and training materials to use in the workplace.

Hearing Conservation Program Checklist
A simple checklist of questions to assess hearing conservation efforts.

Preventing Occupational Hearing Loss - A Practical Guide
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 96-110 (1996)
Non-technical guidance for employers and employees on developing and maintaining hearing loss prevention programs.

Working in Noise with a Hearing Loss: Perceptions from Workers, Supervisors, and Hearing Conservation Program Managers

Occupational Health Cochrane Reviews (Listen to Podcast )
Evidenced-based reviews for occupational health. A team of reviewers in Finland, the Netherlands and NIOSH have conducted a review to examine which strategies are effective to protect against loud noise at work.

Use of historical data and a novel metric in the evaluation of the effectiveness of hearing conservation program components
Historical audiometric data combined with noise monitoring data can be used to better understand the effectiveness of hearing conservation programs.