Why Construction Workers Go Deaf

“Huh?”may be the word construction workers say most often

A jackhammer biting into concrete creates a heavy banging sound that can give a headache to people standing a hundred feet away. The roar of heavy equipment, pounding, beeping, clanging, and other sounds at a construction site inspire local laws that restrict the hours when construction workers can ply their trade.

But what about the workers nearest the equipment that is making all this noise? Are our construction workers at risk of learning first-hand about noise-induced hearing loss?

Construction workers in our neighboring state of Washington are five times as likely as other workers to file claims for work-related hearing loss. On a national level, OSHA reports that hearing loss claims related to construction noise have risen 40 percent over the past ten years. Hearing loss is now the second most common self-reported occupational disease.

Statistics collected by NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, indicate that nearly half a million construction workers in the U.S. are exposed to “hazardous” noise that could interfere with hearing.

The road construction industry spends about $50 million a year for work-related hearing loss. Hearing protection devices for all construction workers would cost about $36 million a year. The conclusion is that the road-building industry would save $14 million a year by insisting that their workers wear hearing protection devices when they’re on the job.

There’s a flaw in this logic, since handing out hearing devices doesn’t guarantee that the workers will wear them all the time. A study in 1998 found that while two out of three construction workers believed they had hearing loss, only half of all of the workers in the study used hearing protection on a regular basis.

Experts at NIOSH are now putting more emphasis on the source of noise rather than its final destination. Modifying the equipment and tools that shatter the quiet of the neighborhood would do more to reduce noise than merely requiring workers to wear devices that, if worn properly, protect the ears from excessive noise.

There are plenty of noise control regulations on the books but not much enforcement because the industry is vast and on-site inspections are costly. Even if citations are issued, a concerted effort to reduce noise at the construction site is rare. Since most construction contractors make only about one to five cents out of every dollar they receive in construction fees, it’s hard to convince them that they should be spending money on upgrading their equipment to make it quieter.

As with other health problems associated with a specific type of work, the hazards of construction noise are best contained at its source.