Merely supplying hearing protection devices is not considered enough to protect employees’ hearing; companies should also consider introducing preventive conservation programmes to guard employees’ hearing acuity.
The Healthy Hearing Programme of HearingCoach, a partner of Electra Mining Africa exhibitor NoiseClipper, is one such conservation programme and has been lauded by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work as best practice.
“The aim is to protect and maintain your employees’ hearing acuity. To achieve this, we create an action plan for each employee, which covers four aspects, namely exposure to noise, hearing acuity, hearing protection and behaviour modification. Preventive audiologists, called HearingCoaches, then implement the action plan,” explains HearingCoach manager Tertius Pienaar.
The preventive audiologists support management to establish control measures and act as the “missing link” between managers and the individual employee.
“The contribution of their expertise to the field of occupational health to prevent occupational disease is game changing. “Their training ensures that they can do preventive case finding and give advice on risk factors with ease. In this way they contribute to quality assurance, simplification of the healthcare chain and create a perfect match between prevention and curative healthcare,” Pienaar points out.
He adds that hearing damage, as a result of exposure to high or prolonged noise levels, is a complex subject and one that requires knowledge and expertise on various subjects.
A HearingCoach does an inventory of the existing situation. An initial conversation is held and, with the help of dosimetry, the personal daily exposure and the individual risk of hearing damage are determined in accordance with the international standards.
A HearingCoach will then advise on the selection of the most appropriate hearing protection. If it is not possible by collective measures to reduce the noise at source, the person who is exposed to the risk, is suitably protected.
The use of oto-acoustic emissions (OAEs) measurement allows the audiologists to evaluate the integrity of the vulnerable structures (hair cells) in the ear and highlights at the earliest stage the damaging effect of noise. The OAE-gram, developed in cooperation with the University of Ghent, in Belgium, provides an easily understood scoring system. It converts the complex data from the clinical procedure into a format for preventive care, as it indicates the degree of damage to the cells in the inner ear often before the individual is even aware of any impairment.
“The OAE-gram allows us to effectively implement OAEs measurement appropriately, on a large scale, when applied in the periodic monitoring and screening of exposed individuals.”
“By individual coaching and properly bringing together all the elements of this cohesive programme, we can elicit a positive behavioural change,” Pienaar adds. He says this form of coaching is unique and successful, and can be combined with motivational group sessions for employees, “which has proven to consolidate our objectives”.
Arguments in favour of preventive hearing conservation include reduced absenteeism, fewer occupational accidents and higher productivity. Investing in preventing hearing loss will also pay off in the longer run, as people will be able to stay engaged and be part of the workforce for longer.
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