In the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, Congress
declared that its purpose was to assure, so far as possible, safe
and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman
and to preserve our human resources. In this Act, the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is charged
with recommending occupational safety and health standards and
describing exposure concentrations that are safe for various
periods of employment-including but not limited to concentrations
at which no worker will suffer diminished health, functional
capacity, or life expectancy as a result of his or her work
experience. By means of criteria documents, NIOSH communicates
these recommended standards to regulatory agencies (including the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA]) and to others
in the occupational safety and health community. Criteria documents
provide the scientific basis for new occupational safety and health
standards. These documents generally contain a critical review of
the scientific and technical information available on the
prevalence of hazards, the existence of safety and health risks,
and the adequacy of control methods. In addition to transmitting
these documents to the Department of Labor, NIOSH also distributes
them to health professionals in academic institutions, industry,
organized labor, public interest groups, and other government
agencies. In 1972, NIOSH published Criteria for a Recommended
Standard: Occupational Exposure to Noise, which provided the basis
for a recommended standard to reduce the risk of developing
permanent hearing loss as a result of occupational noise exposure
NIOSH 1972]. NIOSH has now evaluated the latest scientific
information and has revised some of its previous recommendations.
The 1998 recommendations go beyond attempting to conserve hearing
by focusing on preventing occupational noise-induced hearing loss
(NIHL). This criteria document reevaluates and reaffirms the
recommended exposure limit (REL) for occupational noise exposure
established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) in 1972. The REL is 85 decibels, A-weighted, as an
8-hr time-weighted average (85 dBA as an 8-hr TWA). Exposures at or
above this level are hazardous. By incorporating the 4000-Hz
audiometric frequency into the definition of hearing impairment in
the risk assessment, NIOSH has found an 8% excess risk of
developing occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) during a
40-year lifetime exposure at the 85-dBA REL. NIOSH has also found
that scientific evidence supports the use of a 3-dB exchange rate
for the calculation of TWA exposures to noise. The recommendations
in this document go beyond attempts to conserve hearing by focusing
on prevention of occupational NIHL. For workers whose noise
exposures equal or exceed 85 dBA, NIOSH recommends a hearing loss
prevention program (HLPP) that includes exposure assessment,
engineering and administrative controls, proper use of hearing
protectors, audiometric evaluation, education and motivation,
recordkeeping, and program audits and evaluations. Audiometric
evaluation is an important component of an HLPP. To provide early
identification of workers with increasing hearing loss, NIOSH has
revised the criterion for significant threshold shift to an
increase of 15 dB in the hearing threshold level (HTL) at 500,
1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, or 6000 Hz in either ear, as determined by
two consecutive tests. To permit timely intervention and prevent
further hearing losses in workers whose HTLs have increased because
of occupational noise exposure, NIOSH no longer recommends age
correction on individual audiograms.
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