Hearing Protection in Offshore Oil and Gas is Truly a Global Issue

According to hear-it.org, a European organization geared towards collecting, processing, and sharing information and data as it relates to hearing issues, one in every four work-related injuries in offshore technological environments are hearing loss-related. It was ranked as the worst job here in the US a few years back, according to a report by CNN Money. Given this, Safety Managers and Industrial Hygienists work to protect workers’ hearing (along with everything else), by conducting a worksite analysis, developing hearing safety programs, and leveraging hearing protection devices to guard against hearing loss and other threats.

It’s no secret that operators of heavy vehicles and machinery face unique challenges.

These may include:

• Working in extreme weather conditions
• Exposure to fumes and chemicals
• Loud environmental noise

A panel at the Heavy Vehicle Safety Summit that took place in April of this year noted that a combination of training and technology is key to addressing the human aspect of these challenges. In a recent blog post, we talk about how to get your workers to adhere to your safety guidelines. But what about technology?

According to OSHA, for more than 25 years, hazardous noise-related hearing loss has been one of the highest-rated concerns in the US. About 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have high-frequency hearing loss due to exposure to loud noises at work or in leisure activities. Add to that the fact that NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) state that: