Unlike a cut or broken bone where an employee is affected immediately, hearing loss from noise exposure is usually a gradual process, sometimes taking years before the employee notices it. For this reason, it can be very difficult to convince employees to wear hearing protection. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides a simulator training tool to motivate employees to don protection to prevent hearing loss injuries.

Hearing Loss Training Software

The NIOSH Hearing Loss Simulator is a computer software training tool designed to demonstrate the effects of noise exposure without the employee having to actually experience noise-induced hearing loss. The Windows-based program (which can be downloaded free) uses different worker scenarios (for example, an older worker who has suffered a hearing loss injury versus an older worker who has not) to demonstrate the importance of protecting one's hearing from workplace noise exposure. You can download the program's new instruction and training guide online. According to NIOSH, the simulator is also designed to teach workers these facts about hearing loss:

• Noise levels affect hearing loss.


• Hearing loss worsens as the duration of the noise exposure increases.


• Hearing loss can become permanent.


• Age does not cause most hearing loss.


• Speech is made up of both low- and high-pitch sounds.


• Hearing loss due to noise exposure makes it more difficult to hear high-pitch sounds.


• Hearing loss due to noise exposure has less of an effect on hearing low-pitch sounds.

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Also protect your workers' vision by following tips in our 10-point checklist on avoiding computer-related eyestrain and our training article on eye protection.

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Other Ways to Help Your Employees with Hearing Protection

Once you've heightened your employees' awareness of noise-induced hearing loss, you can take additional steps to help ensure they decrease their risk of hearing loss due to harmful noise exposures.

• Make more than one type of hearing protection available. All ears are different, and there are even differences between the ears on a person's head. For this reason, you should have varieties of protection on hand to ensure that it is comfortable to wear. Comfortable hearing protection generally translates into improved compliance.


• Demonstrate how to properly wear the protection. Hearing protection that is donned inappropriately is both uncomfortable and ineffective. Also, when employees aren't complying with hearing protection requirements, it is often because they don't know how to wear it properly— and don't want to ask. For these employees, one-on-one instruction on how to select and wear protective equipment will generally help with compliance.


• Clearly delineate where and when protective equipment is actually needed, rather than instituting a carte blanche rule that hearing protection is required everywhere and at all times when it really is not. Even the best hearing protection can be uncomfortable when worn for long periods. Employees, therefore, should wear it only when necessary.

Hearing is a sense that we all take for granted, at least until we lose it. By improving your employees' awareness of the effects of workplace noise on their hearing and helping to protect themselves by reducing their exposure, you are giving them a gift that will last for years to come.

Hearing Is Just One of the Five Senses&Don't Forget the Others!

Another sense that's vitally important is eyesight. More and more employees work on— and stare at— a computer every day, which can cause eyestrain. This easy-to-use, 10-point resource from COCA—Practical Checklist to Help Employees Avoid Computer-Related Eyestrain—gives you inexpensive ways to reduce eyestrain risk and help ensure that your employees' computer work doesn't adversely affect their eyesight.

You can also check out COCA's Trainer's Handbook article which details workplace eye hazards and discusses protective measures.