Washington Administrative Code › Title 296 - Labor and Industries, Department of › Chapter 296-307 - Safety standards for agriculture › SPECIALIZED OPERATIONS › Part Y-7 - Hearing Loss Prevention (Noise) › Options to Audiometric Testing › Section 296-307-638 - Summary

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
Employer responsibility:
This section provides options to baseline audiometric
						testing for employees assigned to duties with noise exposures for
less
						than one year.
These program options may also be used to provide added
						assessment of longer-term employees in addition to audiometric testing.
The requirements of this section apply only if the
						employer decides to use auditing or a third-party hearing loss prevention
						program and do not conduct baseline audiometric testing for those
						employees.
The employer must meet the
								requirements...
in this section:
Hearing Protection Audits
Conduct hearing protection audits at least
								quarterly.
WAC
								296-307-63805
Make sure staff conducting audits are properly
								trained.
WAC
								296-307-63810
Assess the hearing protection used by each employee
								during audits.
WAC
								296-307-63815
Document your hearing protection audits.
WAC
								296-307-63820
Third-Party Audiometric Testing
Make sure third-party hearing loss prevention
								programs meet the following requirements.
WAC
								296-307-63825
IMPORTANT:
Hearing protection audits
are a tool for use
						in evaluating the employer's hearing loss prevention program in cases where
						audiometric testing does not provide a useful measure. For example, if most of
						the employees are hired on a temporary basis for a few months at a time,
						audio-metric testing may not identify the small changes in hearing acuity that
						could occur. Auditing provides an alternative to audiometric testing in these
						cases.
Auditing is not required unless the employer uses it in
						place of baseline audiometric testing for employees hired for a period of
less than one year
and is permitted as a substitute for
						audiometric testing only for these employees.
Third-party hearing loss prevention
						programs
are full hearing loss prevention programs and are distinct from
						audiometric testing provided by third parties as part of the employer's hearing
						loss prevention program. These programs may be organized by labor groups, trade
						associations, labor-management cooperatives, or other organizations to:
(1) Cover a specific group of employees;
OR
(2) Combine efforts for several employers
					 with common employees.
Although the employer remains responsible for the
						program, third-party programs can have at least two benefits over the employer
						running its own program:
(a) The
					 audiometric testing is portable between the participating employers so new
					 testing will not be needed when an employee changes employers.
(b) Employees who only work for short periods
					 for any one employer can be monitored under the group program over a longer
					 period of time increasing the effectiveness of the audiometric testing in
					 preventing hearing loss for these employees.