Cal/OSHA Noise Exposure: The 85-Decibel Line That Starts a Hearing Conservation Program — Michael Karl McNeil

By Michael Karl McNeil, REP, RIH, EPP, QSD

Most California employers know that noise is regulated. Fewer know that Title 8 draws two different lines, at two different levels, and that the lower of the two is the one that creates most of the obligations. Article 105 of the General Industry Safety Orders, Sections 5095 through 5100, sets a permissible exposure limit at 90 decibels and an action level at 85. The 90-decibel line governs what you must do about the noise itself. The 85-decibel line governs what you must do about the people exposed to it, and that is the hearing conservation program.

The two numbers

Section 5095(b) defines the action level as an 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 decibels measured on the A-scale, slow response, or the equivalent dose of fifty percent. Section 5096 sets the exposure limits in Table N-1: 90 dBA for eight hours, with the permitted time halving for every five decibels above that, so 95 dBA is limited to four hours and 100 dBA to two. Under Section 5096(b), when employees are subjected to sound levels above Table N-1, feasible administrative or engineering controls must be used first; only if those fail to bring the levels within the table does personal protective equipment become the means of compliance. Cal/OSHA does not accept earplugs as a substitute for a quieter process where a quieter process is feasible.

Who is in and who is out

Section 5095(a) exempts agricultural, construction, and oil and gas operations from Sections 5097 through 5100. That exemption is narrower than it sounds. Those operations remain bound by Section 5096, so the Table N-1 limits and the controls-before-protectors rule still apply to them. What they are excused from is the program: the monitoring, audiometric testing, protector, training and recordkeeping requirements that follow. General industry, manufacturing, warehousing, food processing, entertainment and healthcare have no such exemption.

What the 85-decibel line starts

Section 5097 is the hearing conservation program, and it begins with monitoring. When information indicates that any employee's exposure may equal or exceed an 8-hour time-weighted average of 85 decibels, the employer must obtain measurements. The section does not define "information" narrowly. A walk-through in which two people have to raise their voices at arm's length is information. The measurements determine who is in the program.

Everyone in the program gets an audiometric testing program. The baseline audiogram must be obtained within six months of the employee's first exposure at or above the action level, and testing for the baseline must be preceded by at least 14 hours without exposure to workplace noise. After the baseline, a new audiogram is required at least annually for every employee exposed at or above the action level. Each annual audiogram is compared to the baseline for a standard threshold shift, defined as a change of an average of 10 dB or more at 2000, 3000 and 4000 Hz in either ear.

A standard threshold shift is where the section stops being a testing rule and becomes an action rule. The employer must fit or refit the employee with hearing protectors, train or retrain in their use, refer the employee for a clinical audiological evaluation or otological examination where appropriate, and notify the employee in writing within 21 days of the determination. A shift that is recorded and not acted on is the finding an inspector writes up, because it is documented proof that the program saw the loss coming.

Protectors, training, records

Section 5098 requires hearing protectors to be made available at no cost to every employee exposed at or above the action level, and requires that they actually be worn by two groups: anyone above the Table N-1 limits under Section 5096(b), and anyone at or above the action level who has not yet had a baseline audiogram or who has experienced a standard threshold shift. Employees must be given a choice from a variety of suitable protectors, and the employer must evaluate the attenuation of the protector for the specific noise environment using one of the methods in Appendix E. The noise reduction rating printed on the box is the starting point for that evaluation, not the end of it.

Section 5099 requires a training program for all employees exposed at or above the action level, repeated annually, covering three things: the effects of noise on hearing; the purpose, advantages, disadvantages and attenuation of the various types of hearing protectors; and the purpose of audiometric testing with an explanation of the test procedures. Copies of Article 105 must be made available to affected employees and posted in the workplace.

Section 5100 splits the retention periods. Noise exposure measurement records are kept for two years. Audiometric test records are kept for the duration of the affected employee's employment and must include the employee's name and job classification, the date of the audiogram, the examiner's name, the date of the last acoustic or exhaustive calibration of the audiometer, and the employee's most recent noise exposure assessment. All of it must be provided on request to employees, former employees, their designated representatives and the Division, and it transfers to a successor employer when the business changes hands.

Why the lower line matters more

The 90-decibel limit is the number people remember, and it is the one that triggers engineering work. But the citation history in this area is mostly written at 85. A plant that runs at 87 dBA has no Table N-1 violation and may have had no reason to think about noise at all, and yet at 87 it owes monitoring, baselines, annual audiograms, protectors, annual training and two sets of records. The federal standard at 29 CFR 1910.95 uses the same two numbers, so the same analysis carries into the other Western states where I work. Measuring first is the inexpensive step. The program follows the measurement, not the other way around.

Michael Karl McNeil is a former Fire Battalion Chief and an industrial hygienist in independent practice at McNeil Safety Consulting in San Gabriel, California. Noise dosimetry, hearing conservation program audits and Cal/OSHA citation defense are part of that practice. mcneilsafetyconsulting.com · michaelkarlmcneilfirefighter.blog

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