University of Pennsylvania

Upon identification of employees whose 8-hour TWA equals or exceeds 85 dBA, EHRS will inform the employee(s), Occupational Medicine and the employees' Supervisor, in writing, of the need to enroll certain employee(s) in the Hearing Conservation Program. Information supplied to Occupational Medicine will include the employee(s) name, supervisor's name, telephone number, and the noise levels recorded in the employee's work area, including dosimetry data. It will be the responsibility of the Supervisor to enroll his/her employee in the Hearing Conservation Program.

In work locations where either through administrative or engineering controls, noise levels are found to have fallen such that the employee's 8-hour TWA is below 80 dBA, EHRS shall notify the employees, Occupational Medicine and the employee's Supervisor, by memo, that the employees working in that area are no longer required to be enrolled in the Hearing Conservation Program. The final decision as to an employee's enrollment status will be left with the Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety.

The results of area and personal monitoring shall be forwarded to Occupational Medicine upon completion of the noise surveys.

Any personnel experiencing difficulty in wearing assigned hearing protection (i.e., irritation of the canals, pain) will be advised to immediately report this to their supervisor and make arrangements to go to Occupational Medicine for evaluation as soon as possible.

The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center's Occupational Medicine Service has the responsibility for administering the Audiometric Testing Program portion of the University of Pennsylvania Hearing Conservation Program. The object of the audiometric testing program is to identify workers who are beginning to lose their hearing and to intervene before the hearing loss becomes worse. Audiometric testing will be provided to all employees whenever employee noise exposures equal or exceed an 8-hr. time-weighted average (TWA) of 85 dBA. Annual retesting will be performed for all personnel enrolled in the Hearing Conservation Medical Surveillance Program.