Exposure to noise in the workplace can induce hearing loss, which may lead to communication difficulties, social isolation, and reduced quality of life. COVID or no COVID, you are still required to provide a safe work place in terms of noise and Worksafe still expect compliance with relevant legislation and regulations as normal. In fact, WorkSafe is still visiting sites and issuing fines so you have no room for complacency. Whilst you are still required to comply with legislation and regulations, social distancing has changed the way that both Occupational and Environmental Noise Assessments have to be conducted.

Jeremy Trotman, JTA founder and principal Occupational Hygienist, recently collaborated with two other Australian Occupational Hygienists to run a full day Noise workshop at the 4th Indonesian Industrial Hygiene Association Conference (IIHA) in Bali on 9-11th September. Our Indonesian colleagues are facing major challenges in improving worker health and Jeremy said “It was most rewarding to be able to assist them a little bit with assessing and controlling noise, which remains one of the greatest causes of industrial injury here in Australia and no doubt other countries as well.”

When the Victorian Noise Compliance Code was updated in 2018, it raised the bar for WorkSafe expectations of noise assessments. Of particular note was the requirement to use dosimetry to measure personal sound exposure for mobile employees and in areas difficult or unsafe to use hand held sound level meters.

JTA has now taken the next step in leading the industry by incorporating state of the art dosimetry equipment into our assessments. These new dosimeters can do all of the functions standard dosimeters can but with some valuable extra capabilities such as recording octave band data, audio, high vibration levels, statistical noise levels and all while being intrinsically safe.

We have recently invested in new state of the art, noise and vibration monitoring equipment in order to provide you with the best service and advice possible.

The final report on the Model Work Health and Safety Laws review, by Marie Boland, former Executive Director of SafeWork SA, was released in December 2018.  Reassuringly the review found that “the model WHS laws are, for the most part, working as intended”.  However, it also went further into the detail of the regulations, uncovering dissatisfaction with specific provisions and making 34 recommendations which, if implemented, could significantly affect the substance of the current laws and their enforcement.  

As part of the OHS Regulations you have a duty of care to ensure that your employees aren’t exposed to noise which is harmful to their health and safety. In order to comply with the regulations you must identify, assess and control the noise risk to your employees and others

This is a summary of the five new Compliance Codes developed by WorkSafe Victoria and released in March 2018. It highlights the changes from previous compliance codes. Basically, with the exception of Hazardous Manual Handling, it seems to be “steady as she goes” with minor revisions and the continued support of audiometric testing and the use of personal noise dosimeters or personal noise exposure meters for noise exposure assessments. WorkSafe says that the new compliance codes have been updated to reflect the OHS Regulations 2017 and Equipment (Public Safety) Regulations 2017 as well as modern work practices.

WorkSafe Victoria recently added 22 new Inspectors whilst 3 new Inspectors have been added by WorkSafe in the ACT. The bottom line is that each State in Australia has a regulating body who manages compliance of the WHS/OHS laws and an Inspector could visit your workplace at any time. The question is, are you ready for them?