Assessment of Occupational Noise Exposure and Associated Hearing Damage Risk for Agricultural Employees

This paper describes background information, measurement procedures, data analysis techniques, and results pertaining to assessment of agricultural employee occupational noise exposure. The criteria on which the proposed OSHA 85 dB(A) 16 hour general industry noise regulation is based has been applied to predict hearing damage risk. Analysis of 237 man days of measured noise exposures shows that annual occupational noise exposure must be established to assess hearing damage risk.

No evidence was found that agricultural employees are exposed to noise levels/durations which exceed the criteria for annual and lifetime noise exposure on which the proposed OSHA general industry regulation is based.