32 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com
WHAT
SAY
A
few years ago, Marc-André Lavoie was con-
ducting an investigation into an accident
where a worker broke his foot after being
hit by a forklift. The forklift was backing up
from outside into a noisy industrial environment.
"I asked them 'Did you check the noise inside the
building and the noise of the backup alarm?' When I
presented it to the safety guy, he decided to ignore my
comments, and there was an issue there," says Lavoie,
president of Risk Marcker, an industrial hygiene
solutions company in Dartmouth, N.S.
While noise was a factor, the issue that remains
unclear, says Lavoie, is whether the backup alarm
was too low or the worker's hearing protection was
too high, resulting in overprotection.
Overprotection occurs when a worker's hearing
protection device is providing too much attenuation
— filtering out too much noise — for the environment
and the work he is doing.
CSA Z94.2-14 Hearing protection devices — Perfor-
mance, selection, care and use says if the sound level
resulting from the use of a hearing protector is more
than 85 decibels (dB), the protection is insufficient. A
sound level of 80 dB to 85 dB is acceptable, (as is 70
dB to 75 dB) while the "optimal or ideal" sound level
is between 75 dB to 80 dB, says the standard.
If workers are protected at 70 dB or below, they are
at risk of overprotection, according to the standard.
Overprotection is a concern in environments with
lower noise levels, including many manufacturing
processes where the noise level is just above 85 dB.
A study by the National Institute for Occupational
Too much
hearing protection
can block workers from
important alarms,
communication
By Amanda Silliker
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