Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Assessment
at
the Millennium Services Group Limited
Author’s Name:
Student Number:
Lecturer:
Unit Code:
Unit Name: Health, Safety and Workplace Environment.
X X University, WA, Australia
Executive Summary
This report provides a detailed information surrounding a case of the intended and implemented noise prevention programs at the Millennium Services Group Limited (MSGL), a cleaning company in Western Australia. This company is famous in terms of providing the best customer services. Undertaking a noise assessment can provide additional benefits to the management team of the company in ascertaining its performance surrounding the work health and safety parameters.
The content of the report is obtained by, 1. commissioning a comprehensive literature review on the industrial deafness, 2. initiating interviews on a hazardous noise, 3. visiting the workplaces for observation, 4. starting a documentation analysis, and 5. performing a measurement of the chosen plant using a mobile app testing instrument. The detailed analyses of the data reveal the current situation of the MSGL in relation to its performance achievement of the sound pressure threshold set by the Safe Work Australia and National Occupational Health and Safety Commission of Australia.
The findings of this report imply that the Millennium Services Group has a general policy in place in the work health and safety domain. Attempts have been made to cater for all safety related services as evident from its existing documents and website. Nevertheless, it needs to enhance its efforts towards preventing the cause of deafness to cleaners due to the high exposure to a hazardous noise emitted from the vacuum, Pacvac Superpro 700. The implications on the company can be multifaceted if many cleaners lose their hearing senses.
It is recommended that the occupational noise prevention policies and programs are designed by the company. The advice is also provided to include NIOSH’s eight components of hazardous noise protection strategies while framing the relevant policies and implementation plans.
Table of Contents
An Overview of the Structure of the Report
Data Analysis, Findings and Discussion
Qualitative (QUAL) Data Analyses
Quantitative (QUAN) Data Analysis
Convergence of QUAL and QUAL Data Results
Recommendation and Implementation Plan
Introduction
One of the aims of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) of Australia, the Safe Work Australia (SWA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in America is to effectively avert occupational disease including the industrial deafness by designing codes of practice, acts and legislations surrounding the work health and safety (NOHSC, 2009, SWA, 2018 & NIOSH, 2021). In the same vein, reliable frameworks and standards concerning the implementation of Work Health and Safety (WHS) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) have been provided by NOHSC, NIOSH and SWA.
This study attempts to investigate the occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) as a major threat to many industrial workers. NOHSC (2009) claimed that an excessive exposure to hazardous noise increase the unrecognised economic costs to both individuals and organisations. Efforts have been also made to explain and analyse the paramount importance of undertaking risk assessment concerning the occupational noise.
Recommendations are provided to affect in framing some necessary controls and management pathways to mitigate the noise produced by an equipment (vacuum) termed as Pacvac Superpro 700. In general, the NIOSH's eight components of NIHL prevention program enable the employers to determine the case of their planned and implemented work health and safety (WHS) policies and interventions. This report facilitates the human resource management of the Millennium Services Group Limited to ascertain whether the plant in use meets the WHS standards particularly the occupational noise mitigating standards.
Tools such as documentation, interview, and observation and evaluation (using a digital mobile app, NIOSH SLM [sound lever meter]) are used to collect data for this study. Of concern is, the evaluator who measured the noise level of the plant did not receive any professional training. The finding of this study may need further examination using additional data from the trained personnel. The definitions of key words and the overview of the structure of this paper are provided in the subsequent paragraphs:
Definitions of Key Words
Audiometric evaluation: Undertaking a risk assessment surrounding the impact of noise on auditory sense organ using sound measuring instruments. For example, NIOSH SLM (a Mobile app).
Decibel (dB): A unit used to measure sound.
Economic cost: The brunt of expenses on both individuals and organisations due to the occupational noise-induced hearing loss.
Industrial deafness: The loss of hearing due to an exposure to a hazardous noise. It is also referred to as a noise-induced hearing loss.
Impulse noise: Instantaneous sharp sounds that can damage the eardrums.
LAeq : An average or equivalent sound level.
LCpeak: C weighted peak level of the sound pressure
Plant: Any machineries including vacuum.
TWA: Time weighted average sound pressure.
SLM: Sound level meter – a microphone device designed to measure a frequency-weighted and time-weighted value of the sound pressure.
Qualitative data: Data was collected in words by using interview, observation and documentation.
Quantitative data: data collected in number using statistics and numeracy.
An Overview of the Structure of the Report
§ Title page: This page contains topic of the report, details of the author, audience (lecturer here), unite code and name.
§ Executive summary: This is an abstract embodying a concise summary of the report. It includes information surrounding ‘why,’ ‘what,’ ‘how,’ ‘what has been found,’ and ‘so what after’ about the report.
§ Table of contents: It includes all the headings and subheadings including references and appendices used in this report to help the readers locate the topic quickly.
§ Introduction: This section introduces the report mentioning on what the report is about and its usefulness. The premise of the study is stated alongside the writing of methods used and the scope of the study. Definitions of the words and the overview of the study are also described here in this section.
§ Data Analysis, Findings and Discussion: This section provides the comprehensive analysis of data, relevant literature review and discussion of the results of the study.
§ Conclusion: A recapitulation of what has been introduced, discussed and found in the study is provided here. It revisits the thesis statement of the study and its findings including the methods used and recommendations provided.
§ Recommendations & Implementation plan: It provides six distinct recommendations together with the implementation plan to the management team of the Millennium Services Group for necessary action concerning the prevention of the industrial deafness.
Data Analysis, Findings and Discussion
Background Information
Data collection was commenced on the 8rd of April, 2021 at the 7 News Corp, Osborne Park, WA, Australia. Documentation, interview and observation tools enabled the author to collect data (See Appendices A & E for details). The document review was aimed at identifying whether the standards mentioned in the policy documents met the legislature requirements concerning the prevention of the occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). By the same token, the interview was planned to ascertain the presence of NIHL policies and its implementation level by the employees in the work place. Observation was also made by walking around the designated worksite - observing and recording the firsthand experiences including the noise. This data collection tool enabled the student to validate the findings from the documentation and interview data analysis.
The interview was conducted first, and the observation and the measurement were undertaken subsequently. The author used a random sampling method to obtain the data. A cleaner was randomly selected to initiate an interview. Subsequently, the vacuum the participant used was identified to measure the noise level.
Literature Review
To prevent the noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and to promote the safe work environment in workplaces, the government of Australia, spearheaded by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) and Safe Work Australia (SWA) drafted and endorsed several strategies, standards and code of practices for employers, employees, management, unions, Health Safety and Work Environment (HSE) representatives, safety officers, and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) professionals. Undertaking pre-emptive actions to safe guard the workers from the workplace hazards is the indispensable legal responsibilities of the concerned employers (App, N. 2021, Millennium, 2019, McClean, 2021, NOHSC, 2009, Safe Work Queensland, 2021, Nunes, I.L. 2005, Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee, 2019 & SWA, 2018,). There is a snowballing effect on individuals, government and society if the industrial deafness is not provided a due diligence by the employers (NOHSC, 2009, NIOSH, 1996 & Nunes, I.L. 2005).
Some standards and measurement thresholds must be understood before an audiometric evaluation is undertaken (NOHSC, 2009, APP, N. 2021 & NIOHS, 1996, 2021). The national standard and code of practice to measure the peak noise is based on “a C-weighted peak sound pressure level, LC,peak” as opposed to “unweighted (linear) peak sound pressure level, Lpeak” (NOHSC, 2009, p. vii). This safety commission (NOHSC) also claimed that measurement of peak sound pressure level using C-weighting is more reliable than a linear response to impulse noise. The sound pressure level of 140 decibels is the national standard for the peak noise (NOHSC, 2009 & NIOHS, 1996, 2021).
Similarly, the standard for daily exposure level of noise in the work environment by a person is 85 decibels [1] (NIOSH, 2021 & Nunes, 2005). It has been scientifically proven that people who expose themselves to the noise level above 85 decibels pose higher NIHL risk (NOHSC, 2009, NIOSH, 2021 & SWA, 2018). Additionally, NIOSH (1996) put forward that workers need protection from the noise if the sound pressure level surpasses 85-dBA TWA (time weighted average) with a three-decibel (3 dB) exchange rate.
Qualitative (QUAL) Data Analyses
The interview transcripts (see Appendix A) revealed that the client, 7 News Corp, which is located at the Osborne Park, WA had a specific instruction to complete vacuuming of all the office areas before their employees arrive at the worksite in the morning (Code, P. 2021). This work arrangement indicated that noise emitting from the vacuum used by cleaners seemed to be hazardous or causing disturbance to the staff. The participant also mentioned that noise from the vacuum was too loud to hear when colleagues either call or talk. The cleaner (Code, P. 2021, p.1) noted “I am worried about my ears now as I have to vacuum offices of this building for four hours straight every morning without using any ear plugs.”
However, the observation during the onsite visit to the campus revealed that earmuffs were available in the store room. The truth is, the interview transcripts, document analysis and observation notes indicated that there was no proper training rendered to cleaners on noise hazards. Consequently, the participant was unaware of the earmuffs available in the store room let alone its purposes and functions. Nevertheless, some photos and displays containing general information concerning the WHS were observed in the cleaner’s room, perhaps for the self-education on different physical hazards and risks including the NIHL (See Figure 1 for details). The company also maintains work place health and safety policy as evidenced from its website (Millennium, 2019).
Figure 1: Safety information made available to the cleaners at the worksite.
Quantitative (QUAN) Data Analysis
The mobile app termed as NIOSH-SLM was used to measure an occupational noise emitted from the vacuum, namely Pacvac Superpro 700 (see Figure 2). The recordings were made as per the measurement protocols provided on the app (see Appendix B). The aim of the test was to establish if the noise emitting from the Pacvac Superpro 700 vacuum was hazardous to the workers. A total of ten recordings were made to maintain the reliability and validity of the tests. The measurement guidelines provided on the app were followed including the measurement position (see Appendix B). The Table 1 provides all the test records provided by the NIOSH-SLM measurement app. A sample test report from the app is also provided in Appendix D.
Table 1: Measurement records obtained from the NIOSH-SLM App.
Note: The average mean scores are used for the data analysis and discussion of this report.
The current test report provided by the TWA reading
is 71.23 dB. This figure indicated that the sound pressure exerted by the
measured plant is not hazardous in referenced to NIOSH’s (1996) guidelines.
However, the mean score for LAeq is 97.73 dB, which is greater than the
permissible sound pressure level, i.e. not more than 85dB. According to the
measurement instruction provided on the NIOSH-SLM App (2021, p.1), it stated, “if the LAeq is above 85 dBA
(and Projected Dose is above 100%), a more detailed survey by a professional
IH/OSH [industrial hygiene/occupational safety and health] may be required…
Noise controls and hearing protection should be required.” The detail
information on the measurement and interpretations of the test results are
provided in Appendix B. Considering the currency of the literature, this result
is reliable and valid for the knowledge claim. It is therefore concluded that
the noise produced from the plant Pacvac Superpro 700 is hazardous and needed necessary
controls and hearing protection guards.
Convergence of QUAL and QUAL Data Results
The results from both QUAL and QUAN data analyses revealed that the noise emitted from the vacuum Pacvac Superpro 700 is damaging and needed an immediate plan of action to control this risk and take other necessary preventive measures. The Figure 2 provides the images of the plant. The cleaner claimed that the noise from the vacuum was too loud, and that he was worried about losing his auditory sense organ (Code, P. 2021). His statement was supported by the numerical data record presented in the preceding paragraphs. The LAeq (average or equivalent sound level) was more than the acceptable point (85 dBA).
Furthermore, the observation and documentation records provided an indirect calling for an intervention concerning the NIHL prevention program. The data analysis suggested a need for an introduction of occupational noise-induced hearing loss prevention program for the cleaners of the Millennium Services Group.
Ethical Issues & Limitations
The data were collected after seeking a verbal permission from both cleaners and site supervisor of the company. The person who collected data was a student, and thus susceptible to a biased conduct and misinformed data interpretations. Additionally, this report is limited to a case study of a one person and an assessment from a one plant. There was a scope of including other participants and testing many vacuums but due to the time constraint the samples were reduced. Moreover, a trained person could be employed, firstly, to undertake the noise measurement and secondly, to ascertain authentic results using different sound pressure recording instruments in future.
Recommendation and Implementation Plan
Notwithstanding the limitations noted in this report, the directions and recommendations surrounding the occupational NIHL are provided for the benefits of the workers at the Millennium Services Group and the clients:
1. Hire a trained professional to undertake an extensive testing (risk assessment) of vacuums used by the cleaners of Millennium Services Group essentially to validate the current findings.
2. The company could provide the noise prevention aids immediately to refrain from further damaging the sense of hearing of those who are exposed to the vacuum noise.
3. The management team could instruct the cleaners to use the earmuffs available in the cleaning store while vacuuming.
4. A team talk on how to protect from the noise should be provided immediately by the site supervisor or the line manager.
5. The company is advised to design a specific policy concerning the occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).
6. The eight components of NIHL prevention program can be included in the policy and implemented as per the norms of the WHS. The NOISH’s eight components of noise prevention program are: 1. Noise exposure monitoring, 2. Engineering and administrative controls, 3. Audiometric evaluation, 4. Hearing protection devices, 5. Education and motivation, 6. Record keeping, 7. Program evaluation, and 8. Program audit (NIOSH, 2021, p.1). More information is provided in Appendix C: Noise Prevention Strategy.
7. The company is recommended to follow the implementation plan provided in Table 2.
Table 2: The Implementation Plan
|
Recommendation*[2] |
Responsible person |
Target date |
|
1. |
Management team or the line manager |
03/05/2021 |
|
2. |
Line manager/Site supervisor |
03/05/2021 |
|
3. |
Site Supervisor/Line manager & Cleaners |
18/04/2021 |
|
4. |
Line manager/site supervisor |
19/04/2021 |
|
5. |
Line manager/Human Resource Management (HRM) Team |
20/04/2021 |
|
6. |
HRM & Line Manager |
21/04/2021 |
Conclusion
The premise of the study was to investigate the occupational noise-induced hearing loss due to a plant being used at the workplaces. In this paper, a noise assessment report has been provided. To ascertain the reliable findings, data collection tools such as interview, observation, documentation and measurement were employed. The data analyses revealed that the noise emitted from the cleaning vacuum titled Pacvac Superpro 700, which are being used by the cleaners of the Millennium Services Group was hazardous. The literature review on the noise parameters supported this finding. The study also noted some limitations, namely fewer samples and dearth of a trained professional to undertake the risk assessment. The company and its management team were provided six recommendations to prevent the industrial deafness.
References
App, N. (2021, June 1). Measurement Instructions. Cincinnati, Ohio, America.
APP, N. (2021, June 1). Prevention Strategy. Cincinnati, Ohio, America.
Code, P. (2021, April 8). Interview Transcripts. (P. Rai, Interviewer)
McClean, K. (2021, January 1). Module 3: Hazards and risks. OHS 6205 Health safety and workplace environment, 1(1), 1. Joondalup, WA, Australia: School of Medical and Health Sciences, ECU.
Millennium. (2019, April 1). Workplace Health and Safety Policy. Retrieved April 6, 2021, from Millennium Services Group Limited: https://millenniumsg.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Workplace-Health-Safety-Policy-MLPOL-027-20190527-New-Format.pdf
NIOSH. (1996, June 1). Preventing occupational hearing loss - a practical guide. (J. R. Franks, Ed.) Retrieved April 8, 2021, from Center for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/96-110/pdf
NIOSH. (2021). Noise measurement result. Centers for Disease Control. Ohio: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
NOHSC. (2009, June 3). National code of practice for noise management and protection of hearing at work. (CDC) Retrieved 4 5, 2021, from National Occupational Health and Safety Commision: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/nationalcodeofpractice_noisemanagementandprotectionofhearingatwork_3rd_edition_nohsc2009-2004_pdf.pdf
Nunes, I. L. (2005, January 1). Noise management at work. Retrieved April 8, 2021, from Researchgate Publication: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23786688_Noise_Management_at_Work
Parliamentary Counsel's Committee. (2019, December 9). Model work health and safety bill. Retrieved from Safe Work Australia: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/2003/model-whs-bill9-december2019.pdf
Safe Work Queensland Australia. (2021, Jan 31). How to manage work health and safety risks- code of Practice. Retrieved April 8, 2021, from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland: https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/72634/how-to-manage-work-health-and-safety-risks-cop-2021.pdf
SWA. (2018, May 1). Model code of practice: how to manage work health and safety risks. Retrieved April 8, 2021, from Safe Work Australia: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1901/code_of_practice_-_how_to_manage_work_health_and_safety_risks_1.pdf
Appendices
Appendix A: Interview Questions & Transcripts
Appendix B: Measurement
Appendix C: Noise Prevention Strategy
Appendix D: A sample of noise measure report from the NIOSH-SLM APP
Appendix E: Observation and Documentation Notes
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