Workplace Noise

As we all know, working conditions haven’t always been regulated or monitored. The Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) has declared that at the dawn of the 20th-century, working conditions were “pitiful” in Quebec1. Fortunately, a lot has changed since then. Regulations have been introduced and measures have been established to protect workers in noisy environments.

Recognizing Occupational Deafness Several 20th-century studies in England and the United States showed that noise strongly affects hearing and can lead to temporary or permanent hearing loss. Even so, concrete preventive measures wouldn’t be introduced for another few years. The first case of occupational deafness was compensated by a New York State court in 1948. In Quebec, the government recognized occupational deafness as an employment injury in 1962 and adopted a compensation scale2.

The high costs of compensating for occupational deafness, and its longterm consequences for workers, subsequently prompted governments to focus on prevention by adopting regulations to limit noise exposure in the workplace. In 1972, the Industrial and Commercial Establishments Act set limits on noise exposure.

In Quebec, this limit is currently set at 90 dB(A) for an 8-hour exposure. However, Bill 59, An Act to Modernize the Occupational Health and Safety Regime, tabled on October 27, 2020, would change the limit to 85 dB(A), which would harmonize the Quebec standard with that of the other Canadian provinces. However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018), the safe limit for 8 hours of daily exposure is 80 dB(A). While measures to control noise in the workplace are recent, we now know that workers’ hearing can be protected in many ways. Reducing noise at the source, limiting noise propagation, cutting back on workers’ exposure time and encouraging the use of hearing protection can all create a working environment that is safe for workers’ hearing. Of course, we need to continue raising awareness, because some workplaces still don’t take proper measures to reduce noise.

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