22 million American workers suffer partial or total permanent hearing loss on the job each year, making this condition the most common workplace injury claim.
The number of claims – which come largely from construction, manufacturing, and mining operations – cost an estimated $242 million per year, according to the Department of Labor. In response, the government has launched an aggressive educational campaign designed to help employers know about available noise-reduction technologies. However, critics say that poor regulation, and not technological underutilization, is to blame. They want the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to update its maximum noise-exposure workplace injury rules to more accurately reflect current conditions and also account for exposure to non-work noise that adds to the cumulative exposure risk. OSHA says that it is considering such actions. [Read more…] about I Wish I Could Hear You…
