THE COHEN GROUP
  Environmental Health & Safety Consulting Services

The Cohen Group Newsletter - Volume 5  Issue 1, Article 4.  January 2003

Hearing Conservation Program for Construction Workers

Mark Golembiewski, CIH

Federal OSHA recently issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) regarding hearing conservation programs for construction workers.  Currently, OSHA’s (and Cal/OSHA’s) hearing conservation standard only applies to employees in general industry. Construction and agriculture are exempt from the hearing conservation standard requirements. Because construction workers are often exposed to high noise levels and therefore run the risk of hearing loss just as their general industry counterparts do, the agency is interested in revising the federal noise standards for construction to include a similar hearing conservation component that would provide equal protection for construction workers.  (Note: if Fed OSHA does promulgate a new hearing conservation rule for construction, then Cal/OSHA would have to follow suit and establish a similar rule within 6 months). 

California workers in all industries are covered by the Occupational Noise Standard 8CCR§5095-5096, which sets maximum noise exposure levels.  However, the general industry noise standard, which also includes sections 5097-5100, provides additional protection for general industry workers than the construction standards provide for construction workers, due to the provisions of the Hearing Conservation Program.  Hearing Conservation added a requirement for employers to implement a program if employee noise exposures exceed a time-weighted average level (TWA) of 85 dBA over an 8-hour workday.   The Hearing Conservation Program can be found in 8CCR§5097 and includes, among other things, requirements for:  

OSHA’s published notice (available on the OSHA website) only asks the public to comment on whether and how specific provisions of the hearing conservation amendment for general industry could also be applied to the construction industry (or if alternative strategies would be easier to implement and more cost effective).  The public comment period ended on November 4, 2002.

In OSHA’s published request for comments (Federal Register 67:50610-50618), the agency raised a number of specific questions about selected provisions of the Hearing Conservation Program and their potential applicability in the construction environment.  Some of these are briefly highlighted here to illustrate the difficulty in adapting the general industry requirements to the construction industry.

1.  Methods of Compliance  -  OSHA requires the employer to conduct an initial noise evaluation when exposure is expected to exceed 85 dBA.  If this requirement was applied in a construction setting, a new evaluation might be required for each new construction site.  An alternative approach is to identify tasks that are presumed to have high exposures and workers engaged in these tasks are protected by a combination of engineering and administrative controls supplemented by the use of personal protective equipment.

2. Monitoring – OSHA requires monitoring when information indicates that any employee's exposure may equal or exceed an 8-hour TWA of 85 dBA.  Employers may design their own sampling strategy so long as employees above this action level are included in the program. But many construction firms are small and don’t have the resources to design and conduct exposure monitoring.  

3. Audiometric Testing Program – OSHA requires employers to make audiometric testing available, at no cost, to all employees who are exposed at or above the action level of 85 dBA. Is a similar requirement appropriate and feasible for the construction industry? 

4. Hearing Protectors - Hearing protectors are required to be made available to all employees exposed at or above the action level of 85 dBA, but do not require workers to wear these devices until their exposures exceed the PEL or the worker has experienced a work-related Standard Threshold Shift (STS).  Should the requirement be contingent upon incurring an STS or waiting for a baseline audiogram, as in the general industry noise standard?

5. Training Programs – Training must be provided and repeated annually for each employee in the hearing conservation program.  These programs must include: information on the effects of noise on hearing; the type of task or equipment that can cause loud noise and maximum usage time without hearing protection, the purpose of hearing protectors; the advantages, disadvantages, and attenuation of various types of hearing protectors; instructions on selection, fitting, use, and care of hearing protectors; and the purpose of audiometric test procedures.   Are these training requirements appropriate for the construction industry? 

6. Recordkeeping - Most construction work is characterized by relatively short job tenures with a given employer, temporary or seasonal employment, and employment in very small firms.  These features may make periodic audiometric testing and recordkeeping more difficult than in the general industry environment.  OSHA is aware of two possible approaches to this logistical problem in construction: (1) Centralized (possibly web based) recordkeeping systems and (2) portable smart cards carried by workers (currently being used in British Columbia).  Workers could also take their records manually from one employer to the next. 

As you can see, there are quite a number of difficult issues that must be resolved before OSHA can justify requiring construction employers to implement a hearing conservation program for their workers.  There is general agreement that potentially harmful noise exposures occur at construction worksites and that hearing loss is a very real possibility for some workers.  But there is also much concern among construction employers regarding the effectiveness, costs, and administrative burdens of implementing a hearing conservation program for their employees.  Can hearing conservation programs be successfully applied to the construction industry?  Will they be able to provide additional protection for construction workers and help prevent hearing loss?  Some Cohen Group construction clients have successfully implemented a hearing conservation program, but it is unquestionable that it requires a concerted effort on the part of the employer.  What do you think?