If awareness is a powerful ally of workplace safety, distractions are its enemy— including the use of headphones to listen to music on construction jobsites, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“Listening to music may produce a safety hazard by masking environmental sounds that need to be heard, especially on active construction sites where attention to moving equipment, heavy machinery, vehicle traffic and safety warning signals may be compromised,” the agency declared. If someone needs to speak with you about something, it can be very difficult to get their attention if you are listening to music with headphones.
OSHA’s position on the question was contained in a letter of interpretation that it issued last fall in response to an employer’s query about its employees listening to music this way on a construction site.
Although there is no specific OSHA regulation that prohibits the use of headphones on a construction site or any other workplace, the agency has set permissible noise exposure limits and requires employers to protect employees subject to sound levels exceeding these limits.
OSHA’s Hearing Protection standard requires that ear protective devices be provided by the employer and used wherever necessary to reduce noise levels below acceptable limits set out by the agency in Table D-2 of its regulations. These standards for acceptable exposure limits sound range from eight hours a day for 90 decibels to a quarter hour or less per day for 115 decibels.
“A portable music player is not a substitute for hearing protection,” OSHA explains.
The reason for not allowing employees to listen to music with headphones while working should be crystal clear, OSHA says. “Listening to music may produce a safety hazard by masking environmental sounds that need to be heard, especially on active construction sites where attention to moving equipment, heavy machinery, vehicle traffic and safety warning signals may be compromised.”
However, OSHA admitted that it has no regulations that specifically ban the use of headphones. As a result, the use of headphones by workers on a construction site may be permissible at the discretion of management, unless such use creates or augments other hazards apart from noise.
But this may not be such a good idea, the agency explains, pointing out that struck-by hazards are one of the four leading causes of death in construction. “It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that employees are not exposed to struck-by hazards while performing their work,” it stresses.
As you all know, there were two instances of construction workers being struck and killed recently in Minnesota, it is believed that in at least one of these instances’ headphone use was a main factor contributing to the death of a worker. The end goal of the day is to go home the same way you came to work and without the distraction/hearing issues related to headphones.
This is a reminder that head phones are not allowed on LCS jobsites because of the multiple safety concerns. This is currently an ongoing safety committee discussion but this policy has not been changed. Radios are acceptable in unoccupied/vacant spaces at a reasonable volume that does not interfere with the safety/communictaion for you or your coworkers, make sure it does not disturb neighboring tenants. If the general contractor has rules about radios we must adhere to them.