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Parent Category: Safety Info Posts

Category: OSHA Compliance Posts

Published: 19 June 2017

Following up on a 2012 post I made about complying with 1910.95(j), I wanted to share a working example of how I document my "hearing protector attenuation" evaluation.  I think the example speaks for it's self, but if you need a reference as to what this exercise is meant to accomplish please refer to my 2012 post Hearing Protection Attenuation Evaluation, has it been done?  A couple of things to point out, notice that this evaluation was NOT done using a single sample!  

1. We sampled multiple workers over different shifts; ALL samples were done in FULL production mode (i.e. assumed to be the highest noise levels in the areas).  You will notice that I used two (2) different evaluation techniques and this caused certain HP to pass in one evaluation, but fail in the other; so be sure you are comfortable using your evaluation methods.  
2. I highly recommend using OSHA's "recommended" method that applies a 50% Safety Factor; however, the first method I used below is "legal" under 1910.95.
3. The brands used in the evals below are actual brands used by the facility and this is NOT an endorsement or opposition to these brands, just real-life examples.
4. I ALWAYS use 85 dBA as my attenuation goal, rather than 90 dBA - this way I don't have two (2) different goals/sets of employees to manage... EVERYONE gets attenuated down to 85 dBA.
5. Sampling was done by the state worker's comp service and was actually done by a CIH- SAFTENG does not provide noise sampling services!

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