ABSTRACT
One of the most important and more common areas of concern for the occupational safety and health professional is noise and noise exposure. This chapter discusses the requirements of the hearing conservation program of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), along with how to correctly use the equations to determine potential noise exposures. It discusses every equation provided on the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) exam reference sheet. There are several types of instruments that can be used to measure an employee's sound level exposure. One of the more useful sound measuring devices is the octave band analyzer. Under the Hearing Conservation standard, OSHA requires that audiometric testing be performed on any employee included into the program. The testing must be conducted by an audiologist, otolaryngologist, or technician certified by Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation. Noise dosage is the amount of noise that an individual has been exposed to for a measured period.
