Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/973524
22 PalletCentral • March-April 2018 palletcentral.com Remember, as an employer, you must do the following: • Preserve and maintain accurate medical and exposure records for each employee covered by your hearing conservation program (or exposure to hazardous chemicals with similar sampling and medical surveillance requirements). • Inform workers of the existence, location, and availability of those medical and exposure records. • Give employees any informational material regarding this standard that OSHA makes available to you, such as the results of their noise samples and any citations issued in relation to these standards. • Make records available to employees, their designated representatives, and to OSHA, as required. If OSHA conducts sampling, agency results will also be provided to the employer and must be shared with workers by posting in the workplace. If there are overexposures above the 90 dBA permissible exposure level, and appropriate hearing protection was not furnished to, and used by workers, serious citations will be issued. If workers who are exposed above 85 dBA are not enrolled in a hearing conservation program, if they fail to receive the annual audiometric testing, or if the employer failed to provide them with the appropriate training, additional citations and penalties can be issued. OSHA's new maximum penalty (for willful and repeat violations) is now $129,336, as of January 2, 2018. If a pattern or practice of violation occurs where many employees are adversely affected, the employer can be cited under the "egregious" policy (a separate penalty per worker exposed to the hazard), and this also places the employer in OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), which triggers follow up inspections at many other locations of that company. The best method to protect worker hearing is to follow the hierarchy of controls for both noise sources and for potentially toxic chemicals: • Elimination: replacing ototoxins with a less toxic chemical product, or purchase new equipment that has lower noise decibel levels when operating; SAFETY If a pattern or practice of violation occurs where many employees are adversely affected, the employer can be cited under the "egregious" policy.