Environment SLP 4 (hearing protection and back injuries)

In this assignment, you will be a health and safety manager in a company that has a manufacturing facility with multiple occupational hazards. This setting could be a place where you currently work, one that you may be familiar with, or one that you just find interesting.

In your walkthroughs through the facility, you notice that many employees have hearing aids. You also notice that it is hard for people to hear each other because of constantly pounding presses and constantly running conveyor belts. Heavy equipment, cranes, and forklifts are constantly operating in the factory as well. Another concern to address is back injuries in this facility. Many are losing work days due to back injury. Although they routinely perform tasks involving heavy physical labor, during the construction period, you decide to do a study to address noise exposure and back-related ergonomics in this facility:

1. Design a plan to evaluate the noise levels to which workers are exposed in this facility. 


2. Examine the situation to decide if a hearing protection program should be implemented and explain the elements that need to be determined to make a determination.


3. Design a plan to reduce the exposure of workers to the noise produced by equipment in this facility, particularly the presses and conveyor belts.


4. How would you go about assessing the workplace for ergonomics for musculoskeletal disorders, specifically back-related disorders?


5. Design a program to reduce these back injuries in your workers.

Length: The SLP assignment should be 4-5 pages long (double-spaced).

Useful Resources: (use at least one)

Morata, T. C., Byrne, D. C., & Ravinowitz, P. M. (2011). Section III.21: Noise exposure and hearing disorders. In Levy, B.S., Wegman, D. H., Baron, S. L., & Sokas, R. K. (Eds.). Section I.2: Recognizing and preventing occupational and environmental disease and injury. In Occupational and environmental health: Recognizing and preventing disease and injury (6th ed., pp. 461-475). New York: Oxford University Press.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2018). Workplace safety and health topics: Noise and hearing loss prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/

Sliwinska-Kowalska, M., & Davis, A. (2012). Noise-induced hearing loss. Noise & Health, 14(61), 274-80.

Suter, A. H. (2012). Engineering controls for occupational noise exposure: The best way to save hearing. Sound and Vibration, 46(1), 24-32.