OSHA Hearing Test Requirements Under 29 CFR 1910.95

Who must be offered an OSHA hearing test

The trigger is the action level in 29 CFR 1910.95: the employer must run a hearing conservation program "whenever employee noise exposures equal or exceed an 8-hour time-weighted average sound level (TWA) of 85 decibels measured on the A scale (slow response) or, equivalently, a dose of fifty percent".

Audiometric testing is part of that program, and the rule is short: "The program shall be provided at no cost to employees." The worker pays nothing for the baseline, the annual tests or a retest. In a 1995 letter, OSHA described the obligation as making testing available to every employee at or above 85 dBA. If you are buying a test on your own, outside an employer program, our page on hearing test cost lists what that costs.

Baseline audiogram: 6 months, 1 year with a mobile van, 14 quiet hours

The first test sets the reference that every later test is compared with. 29 CFR 1910.95 sets its deadlines:

• Standard deadline: within 6 months of the employee's first exposure at or above the action level.
• Mobile test vans: where the employer uses a mobile van, within 1 year of that first exposure.
• Quiet period: the baseline test "shall be preceded by at least 14 hours without exposure to workplace noise". The employer must also tell workers to avoid high levels of noise outside work during the 14-hour period before the test.

Annual audiograms and who runs the test

After the baseline, the employer must obtain a new audiogram "at least annually" for each employee exposed at or above an 8-hour average of 85 decibels. Training follows the same calendar: the program "shall be repeated annually" for each employee in the hearing conservation program.

The test itself can be given by a licensed or certified audiologist, an otolaryngologist or another physician, or by a technician certified by the Council of Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation, or one who has shown competence in giving the test and checking the audiometer.

When the annual test shows a standard threshold shift

Each annual audiogram is compared with the baseline. A standard threshold shift is "a change in hearing threshold relative to the baseline audiogram of an average of 10 dB or more at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz in either ear".

When the annual test shows a shift, the employer may retest within 30 days and use the retest as the annual audiogram. Once a shift is determined, the employee must be told in writing within 21 days.

Recording a hearing loss on the OSHA 300 Log

Recordkeeping is a separate rule, 29 CFR 1904.10. A case goes on the OSHA 300 Log when the employee has a work-related standard threshold shift and the average hearing level at 2000, 3000 and 4000 Hz on the current audiogram is 25 dB or more in the same ear as the shift.

A retest can settle it first. If the employer retests within 30 days of the first test and the retest does not confirm the recordable shift, nothing is recorded. If it does, the case must be recorded within seven calendar days of the retest.

Can a worker refuse the test?

The noise standard does not settle it on its own; OSHA answered in a letter of interpretation dated January 23, 1995. It said the standard "requires only that audiometric testing be made available" to employees at or above an 8-hour average of 85 dBA, and that it "does not prohibit an employer from having a company rule that employees submit to audiometric testing".

The same letter added that the Americans With Disabilities Act "places certain limitations on employer required medical examinations", which must be job related and consistent with business necessity, and pointed employers to the EEOC for that question.