Hearing Conservation

The university is committed to the protection of workers from occupational hazards. The university has developed and implemented a comprehensive Hearing Conservation Program to protect university workers from hearing loss due to occupational noise exposure. Where feasible, workplace noise levels shall be minimized by engineering controls at the source, and/or administrative controls. As a last resort, personal protective equipment in the form of hearing protection devices will be required. Identified noise hazard areas shall be defined where the eight-hour TWA exceeds 85 decibel A-Weighting (dBA) — the use of appropriate hearing protection shall be mandatory in these areas.

Hearing protection that is ordered and made available to noise exposed workers is required to meet Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards as per the Alberta OHS Code. Unfortunately some product detail information does not accurately reflect actual product information. For example, CSA Class A might be included in a product description — however, when the product arrives, the CSA Class reference is not included on the product and/or packaging.

When ordering hearing protection, confirmation with the vendor should be made that the CSA Class is indicated on the product and/or packaging. When received, if the CSA Class is indicated on the packaging only, be sure to retain at least one original package to demonstrate compliance with Alberta OHS requirements.

Workers who are required, as a result of noise exposure, to be included in the hearing conservation program should complete Hearing Conservation Training.