ASSE Joins 85-3 Campaign
ASSE has joined the 85-3 Campaign, which recognizes organizations and employers that, as part of their hearing protection strategy for workers, have adopted the 85 dBA noise protection level. “On behalf of its nearly 35,000 member safety, health and environmental (SH&E) professionals, ASSE is pleased to join the 85-3 Coalition and looks forward to working with the coalition’s members to support the adoption of the 85-dBA average exposure limit for an 8-hour day measured with a 3-dB exchange rate,” ASSE President Richard A. Pollock, CSP, said in a statement. “The appropriateness of the 85-3 level is widely accepted in practice by our members and many of the employers with whom they work throughout the world.” Earlier this year, ASSE urged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to focus its efforts to improve hearing protection on lowering OSHA’s permissible exposure limit (PEL) for noise from the current 90 dBA (decibel) to 85 dBA. 85-3 is also required in the ANSI/ASSE A10.46 Standard “Hearing Loss Prevention for Construction and Demolition Workers” , and NIOSH has known the gains in hearing protection 85-3 can achieve for decades.