On June 1, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Region V office established a regional emphasis program (REP) focusing on occupational noise exposure in the workplace.1 The initiative is meant to encourage employers to take steps to identify, reduce and eliminate hazards associated with exposure to high levels of noise. The REP comes in the wake of a recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which found that the national average hearing loss rate for all private manufacturing is 8.6 cases per 10,000 full time workers. In addition, the study found that over half of workers in production occupations did not use personal protective equipment to mitigate workplace noise exposure.
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