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Employee Testing Service
Legend helps its clients with employee testing needs by coming down to the client’s facility to conduct these tests, including: respiratory fit testing, pulmonary functions tests, audiometric testing, etc. Research indicates that workplaces with proper hearing conservation programs have higher levels of worker productivity and lower incidence of absenteeism. OSHA requires that if an employee`s hearing test (audiogram) reveals that the employee has experienced a work-related Standard Threshold Shift (STS) in hearing in one or both ears, you must record the case on the OSHA 300 Log. The only way to know this is by testing your facility’s noise levels and testing your employees for noise exposure.
If the employee has never previously experienced a recordable hearing loss, you must compare the employee`s current audiogram with that employee`s baseline audiogram. If the employee has previously experienced a recordable hearing loss, you must compare the employee`s current audiogram with the employee`s revised baseline audiogram (the audiogram reflecting the employee`s previous recordable hearing loss case).
Required component of OSHA`s hearing conservation program for general industry covers monitoring, audiometric testing, hearing protectors, training, and recordkeeping requirements.
Similarly, before an employee may be required to use any respirator with a negative or positive pressure tight fitting face-piece, the employee must be fit tested with the same make, model, style, and size of respirator that will be used. Employees using tight-fitting face-piece respirators must pass an appropriate qualitative fit test (QLFT) or quantitative fit test (QNFT). The employer must ensure that an employee using a tight- fitting face-piece respirator is fit tested prior to initial use of the respirator, whenever a different respirator face-piece (size, style, model, or make) is used.
All respirators that rely on a mask-to-face seal need to be annually checked with either qualitative or quantitative methods to determine whether the mask provides an acceptable fit to a wearer. The qualitative fit test procedures rely on a subjective sensation (taste, irritation, smell) of the respirator wearer to a particular test agent while the quantitative use measuring instruments to measure face seal leakage. The relative workplace exposure level determines what constitutes an acceptable fit and which fit test procedure is required.