Posted By stephen J Smith Hi Claire, I would use the heirachy of elimination segregation and isolation to start with. Then move to reviewing PPE and then audiometry testing. This is a long term project but using this framework may give you an interesting way to prove what can and cannot be achieved. It is not widely known but some employees can get NIHL at 77 d(B)A due to their inherent make up - so some individuals may not be able to be helped.

Posted By Merv Newman Calire, one thing we did to convince a few recalcitrant employees was to hire an OH nurse for two weeks. He measured hearing acuity at shift start and again at shift end. For those that showed a significant loss over the day he was very sympathetic and caring. This combined with positive reinforcement for those who changed behaviour (started wearing hearing protection) got us up to 100% within the two weeks. In addition to the above we got management commitment to improve engineering measures. Stamping presses were (eventually) fitted with noise cabins. Inclusion of noise suppression measures were standardised for all future purchases of equipment. Total cost, over five years was close to £1 000 000 for 15 high speed presses. What are the courts awarding now for one case of deafness ? "Love and marriage, love and marriage, you can't have one, you can't have one without the other" Merv Newman