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Occupational Safety and Health Organization

Looking through the National Institute of Occupational Health, I found a lot of interesting programs that targeted: chemical health risk assessment, noise risk assessor, safe handling of forklift trucks, confined space safety, basic rigging and slinging, and a number of other safety trainings/resources for occupational safety and health.

One program specifically looked at and researched ways to reduce the prevalence of occupational hearing loss. The Hearing Loss Prevention Program provides recommendations to employers and safety professionals in identifying ototoxicants (chemicals that damage the inner ear), developing practical and cost effective solutions for the causes of occupational hearing loss, and to reduce the overall health outcomes, injuries and fatalities, and the improvement to health and well-being.

This program relates to my health and safety because I work in environments where noise can become an issue. As a Pilates instructor, there is always music playing in the background as I teach and sometimes this can cause me to get distracting which puts my clients at risk for falling off the machine. In some setting studios have loud music blaring over the speakers requiring the instructors to use a microphone and further yelling over the music so that those in the class can hear them. This poses similar risks for clients injuring themselves due to lack of concentration and the instructor loosing their voice due to yelling constantly. Though my situation is nowhere near as sever as other occupations with constant noise, like coal miners, it's important to take this into consideration as group fitness classes begin to adopt a night club style environment with loud music and shouting.

Comments

  1. kschererNovember 3, 2019 at 10:54 AM

    That is crazy, that is an aspect of occupational health that is something that you do not really think about. Noise pollution and hearing loss can really set the stage for a dangerous environment. Appreciate your share.

    ReplyDelete

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