Environmental Health, Safety, and Risk Management
Hearing Conservation Program
The purpose of the Hearing Conservation Program is to establish and maintain effective noise control and hearing protection procedures; which are designed to eliminate or control, as so far as is reasonable and practical, overexposure to harmful noise among students, faculty, and staff. A hearing conservation program is usually initiated whenever the sound levels in a workspace consistently exceed 85 db over an 8 hour time-weighted average.
The elements of a hearing conservation program consist of:
- Conducting sound level measurements in any area where the presence of excess noise may be suspected.
- Providing hearing conservation training for faculty, staff and students who may be exposed to excess levels of noise.
- Providing access to hearing testing for any employee who desires to receives such testing.
Hearing protection devices will be provided to employees when sound levels exceed the sound exposure threshold and other types of controls are unable to provide sufficient protection.
Any individual who wishes to have sound level measurements taken, and/or receive hearing conservation training or hearing testing information, should contact EHS/RM at 559.278.7422.
Resources
Hearing Conservation Program Manual