Can you hear me now?
Hearing-loss prevention
standard
for construction considered
By Candace
Doyle
Editor
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"It
really doesn't make sense for the construction industry,
but we do have those hazards."
Dan Burazin
Safety Director
Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee
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The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration intends to issue an advance notice
of proposed rulemaking this year on hearing loss in the construction
industry.
OSHA has a comprehensive
hearing-conservation program for general industry; the standard was
established in 1983. However, while there is a standard for construction,
it is much more general, addressing merely noise levels at sites and
when to use hearing-protection equipment, said Leslie Ptak, an industrial
hygienist with OSHA's regional office in Chicago.
"We do have
a noise standard for construction," she said. "Construction
has a time-weighted standard -- noise can't exceed 90 decibels over
an eight-hour period, which is higher than general industry. Also,
there's a standard for ear-protection devices. If overexposed, employers
need to give hearing protection to employees.
"However,
there is no standard requiring the audiometric testing of sites and
no baseline testing of workers, which is needed to determine loss,"
said Ptak.
That could change
when - or if - a standard is adopted, a move hearing-loss researchers
advocate.
Mark Stephenson,
a research audiologist for the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health, said his findings indicate that carpenters and
sheet-metal workers are at particularly high risk for hearing loss.
"My data
shows the average carpenter, by the time he or she is only 25 years
old, they have 50-year-old ears," said Stephenson, whose research
will be used to make recommendations to OSHA. "By 25, the carpenter's
hearing is as bad as a 50-year-old. The noise is having an effect."
By the time carpenters
are in their 50s, two out of three will require hearing aids, he said.
They're not alone
Also at high risk,
said Thomas Broderick, the executive director of the Construction
Safety Council in Chicago, are operating engineers, tunnel workers
and laborers.
"It's widespread,"
he said.
Broderick, who
acknowledged that implementing a standard for construction would be
difficult, nonetheless favored an industry-specific one.
"It would
be a significant step in the right direction," he said.
Also favoring
such a move is the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of
America, which had asked NIOSH in the mid-1990s to conduct a health-hazard
evaluation of the industry.
"It's been
something we've been working to make happen," said Joe Durst,
director of safety and health for the national carpenters union.
"Carpenters
are at somewhat of a higher risk than some of the other construction
trades," he said. "It's not only the noise we're dealing
with, it's the impact noise. There is some belief impact noise may
affect balance."
Durst said that
while the acceptable noise level for general industry is 85 decibels,
construction's is higher at 90. Also not addressed in construction
is ways to improve sites to remove excessive noise.
"In construction,
there's no requirement to try to engineer the noise out," he
said.
And with good
reasons, said Ptak. It can't be done.
"You can't
engineer noise out on a construction job," she said.
Having said that,
Ptak said damage done by noise on a site can be minimized.
"We do know
that personal protection equipment works," she said.
If there's a will ...
Additionally,
Ptak said there may be ways to provide baseline hearing tests to construction
workers and maintain records of loss that were not available in the
past.
Stephenson agreed:
"There are some real barriers to implementing a hearing-loss
prevention program in the construction industry. The construction
industry has to deal with the transient nature of the work place.
How do you keep audiometric records?"
A problem in the
past, Stephenson said technology today - including the use of smart
cards that contain a worker's health history that can be taken from
job to job - is making that type of record keeping possible.
"It's just
becoming increasingly feasible to do this," he said. "That
kind of technology is only now emerging."
But accurate record
keeping is not the only hurdle to a standard for the industry, said
Broderick.
He said a comprehensive
program would have to involve audiometric tests at hire and regular
intervals as well as the use of properly fitted ear muffs and plugs.
"In construction,
very little of that is done," he said.
It would also
have to work to change the perception by workers and employers about
hearing loss.
"The contractor's
perspective would be, 'It'd be nice if we didn't have to deal with
it,'" Broderick said. "It'd be wonderful if jackhammers
were quiet, but they aren't.
"If employers
in construction were required to have a hearing-conservation program,
I think more employers would be aware of the proactive things they
could be doing," he said.
Attitude's everything
One proactive
measure would be to require the use of protective equipment - and
to change the attitudes surrounding its use.
"There's
no doubt that wandering around with foam ear muffs and ear plugs is
not cool," Broderick said.
Those changes
- behavioral and attitudinal, said Stephenson, can only come about
through training.
No simple component
of that training would be to familiarize workers with the different
types of protective equipment available.
"There are
200 to 300 protectors out there," he said, "all with various
degrees of noise-reduction ratings. Truly, there's something for everybody."
Also important,
he said, is to have that equipment properly fitted.
"I know darn
well what size safety shoe I wear, but I wouldn't just go in and buy
a pair without trying them on," he said.
The language used
in any training program is critical too in getting a safety message
across, Stephenson said.
"Some of
the data on health communication indicates that you have to be concerned
about an illusion of invulnerability," he said.
That's particularly
true of younger workers. For more seasoned workers, it's important
to not deliver a message of fear, as it'll create an avoidance response.
"Even within
the same work sector, depending on whether you're working with apprentices
or master carpenters, you're probably going to have a different message,"
he said.
While the carpenters
union and researchers tend to favor an industry-specific standard
on hearing loss, at least one construction trade association is not
so sure.
Dan Burazin, safety
director for the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee,
mentioned the same hurdles researchers did in implementing a standard.
But Burazin believes they may be insurmountable.
"Construction
has sort of tunnel visioned through that," he said of having
a standard. "You may be with me this week but not next week.
You really don't have a baseline."
He said it may
make more sense for workers or contractors to monitor themselves.
"If you're
three feet away from a guy and you have to yell, you need protection,"
he said. "It really doesn't make sense for the construction industry,
but we do have those hazards."
