You`re not going mad. Mr H&S has his wires crossed and may, just may be
trying to chuck his weight about a bit. That said - you are the OHA, you
give advice. If management choose to ignore that advice on their head be
it .
Have you classified the individual audios? This may well add weight to
your arguement
Also - as decibels are measured in a logarithmic scale and an increase
of 3dBA means double the amount of noise being "just over" may be more
significant that he thinks
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Donna Dixon (Bradford)
Sent: 04 February 2010 13:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Repeat audiometric testing
hi Folks
Hope you are all well and as busy as ever?
I have a client who we requires audiometric testing for its factory
based
operatives. We undertook baseline testing last year and provided an
annual
report with our findings (which were somewhat concerning!).
Our recommendations were that the risk assessment and control measures
were reviewed and that repeat testing be undertaken in line with Noise
at
Work/HS guidance.
The H&S manager has suggested in response that "The noise at work regs
does not stipulate a re-test span". I have quoted the relevant section
so
thats not a problem. However, the Mgr has also suggested that "you
should
be re-testing the high risk people only. You should not be doing medium
- low
risk people every year it does not make sense" - can anyone help me to
understand this (I do know what high, medium and low risk means, just
not in
the context of noise at work). i was of the understanding that if the
risk
assessment confirmed that the noise exceeded the action level (which it
does), then control measures needed to be in place to reduce the noise
exposure, as well as undertaking audiometric testing to ensure control
measures remain effective.
The H&s Mgr also suggested that "as we are only just over the limit in
some
areas, we seem to not be taking this into concideration". - again I was
of the
understanding that the action level was fairly black and white in terms
of
action required.
Am I missing the point? Please note that I am experienced in testing
etc and
thought I was quite comfortable with the Noise at work regs, but these
statements have just confused me!!!!.
I look forward to hearing from you guys out there to either tell me to
get
reading or that I am indeed not going mad!!!
Many thanks
Donna
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