Audiometric Testing for Workplace Hearing
Total Group provides occupational audiometric testing and hearing-conservation support for employers managing workplace noise risks. The service helps establish a hearing baseline, identify changes over time and give the employer and worker information to support appropriate follow-up. Testing is one part of a broader hearing-conservation programme; it does not replace noise assessment, exposure controls, hearing protection or worker education.
What audiometric testing involves
Audiometric testing measures a worker’s hearing thresholds at selected frequencies. A worker listens to tones through headphones or ear inserts and signals when each tone is heard. The results are recorded in an audiogram or chart and compared with the worker’s baseline during later testing. This comparison can help identify a change that may need counselling, repeat testing or clinical review. CCOHS describes the testing process and worker information that should accompany it.
Before testing is arranged, the employer should identify the work areas, tasks and worker groups that may be exposed to hazardous noise. The testing plan should also account for the applicable jurisdiction, the worker’s exposure history, the baseline or previous test date and any client or employer programme requirements. If a result is flagged under the applicable protocol, the next step may involve a qualified health professional or other designated reviewer. A flagged result is not a diagnosis by itself.
Planning the service around the worksite
Good planning starts with the employer’s noise-exposure information. This may include a recent noise exposure assessment, changes to equipment or processes, shift patterns, work locations and the hearing-conservation procedure already in place. The employer should provide a suitable testing area and make workers available as required by the governing programme. Testing conditions and any required quiet period before a baseline test should be confirmed in advance rather than assumed.
The employer, testing provider and designated clinical contact each have different responsibilities. The employer identifies potentially exposed workers, provides access to relevant workplace information and maintains the programme records required by the applicable law or client standard. The testing provider conducts the agreed test and communicates the worker-facing result information within the permitted scope. A physician, audiologist or occupational health nurse may have a separate review role where the jurisdiction or the result requires it. The exact allocation must be confirmed for the site before work begins.
Alberta requirements and Canadian jurisdiction
Requirements are not identical across Canada. In Alberta, Part 16 of the Occupational Health and Safety Code requires an employer to provide specified audiometric tests at the employer’s expense for a worker who is or may be exposed to excess noise. Section 223 sets out an initial baseline window, a test within 12 months of the baseline and testing at least every second year thereafter. It also addresses the audiometric technician’s consultation and significant-threshold-shift process. See the current Alberta Code, sections 219–224.
Those Alberta intervals and roles should not be copied to another province, territory or federal workplace without checking the controlling framework. CCOHS notes that audiometric-testing requirements vary by jurisdiction and identifies audiometry as one element of a hearing-conservation programme. Review the CCOHS hearing-conservation guidance. For a federally regulated workplace, the federal noise framework is separate from Alberta’s provincial Code; IPG-074 explains the federal Part VII sound-level framework.
Results, privacy and records
Workers should receive an understandable explanation of their test results and a copy where the applicable programme provides for it. Audiograms and related health information may be medical or personal information. Access, sharing, retention and consent requirements must be handled under the applicable privacy and occupational health and safety framework. Employers should not assume that a service provider’s report can be circulated without checking those requirements.
In Alberta, the current Code requires the employer’s noise management programme to address audiometric testing and test records. It also requires defined handling of significant-threshold-shift results and sets retention duties for information held by the clinical reviewer and employer. The provider’s deliverables and record-transfer process should be agreed with the employer before testing, including what the employer needs to demonstrate that testing occurred and what remains under clinical control.
Discuss your testing requirements
When you contact Total Group, share the worksite location and jurisdiction, the workers or roles to be assessed, the noise-exposure information available, whether baseline or follow-up testing is required, the preferred testing setting and any client record requirements. Total Group can then discuss the appropriate service scope and the planning information needed for your workplace. The governing regulator, employer and designated health professional remain responsible for confirming the requirements that apply to the worksite and workers.
References
Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Code, Part 16: Noise (current official legislation page). CCOHS, Noise — Audiometric Tests. CCOHS, Noise — Hearing Conservation Program. Employment and Social Development Canada, IPG-074: Levels of Sound.
