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159 Hearing Protection: Basic
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Employee Training and Education

The employer must institute a training program for all employees with noise exposures at or above the action level and ensure employee participation.

  • Training must be repeated annually for each employee in the hearing conservation program.
  • Information must be updated to be consistent with changes in protective equipment and work processes.

Cultivate a vigilant attitude about hearing protection: Employees should expect their hearing protectors to slip or work lose over a period of time. Throughout their work shift, employees must periodically check to see if they need to readjust or refit their protector in order to maintain a reliable fit.

Guard against acquiring a false sense of safety: As the discussion and figures in this section have illustrated, it is easy to misuse hearing protectors and greatly reduce their effectiveness. Employees can be effectively protected from hearing health hazards if they:

  • properly wear their hearing protectors,
  • exercise a commitment to wear their hearing protectors consistently, and
  • maintain their hearing protectors by repairing or replacing them when necessary.

Hearing protectors break and become worn: Employees also need to check their protector regularly and to seek repair or replacement whenever necessary. Lastly, they can help each other by encouraging their co-workers to use hearing protectors and to seek help when they have problems.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

2-8. Annual hearing protection training must be conducted for _____.