Protecting the hearing of orchestra musicians just became a little more complicated in the US with the release of a new policy from OSHA, the federal agency responsible for workplace health and safety.  The new policy declares that the simple provision of earplugs is insufficient, unless all other administrative or venue-renovation options have been exhausted first.

Hearing protection for musicians has always been a touchy subject in the US:  even when risks are well known, many musicians do not want to complain about “noise” levels within their ensembles.  As the risks of hearing loss are increasingly documented, and as hearing protection for musicians is increasingly emphasized in other countries, this may not continue to be the case.  Both musicians and managers need to understand the way that OSHA policy is changing to be prepared for the road ahead.

It’s a complicated issue, so I apologize for the length of the rest of this post.  I’ll start off with an explanation of the OSHA noise regulations, explain what’s recently changed about those regulations, report how the regulations have been applied to orchestras in the past and how they might apply to orchestras in the future, and what’s occurred in the Eurpoean Union in a parallel scenario.  I’d be happy to go into even more depth if you are interested, just send me an email at gmiller@pindropacoustics.com.  

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A New Policy, Quietly Released

Very quietly, the United States’ Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a new policy last October regarding the way they will interpret existing occupational noise standards.  At first glance, the new policy may seem either uninteresting or irrelevant to arts groups:

… employers must use administrative or engineering controls rather than personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce noise exposures that are above acceptable levels when such controls are feasible…. The Agency intends to revise its current enforcement policy to reflect this interpretation. (from the new policy’s Summary)

But digging a little deeper, this new interpretation might have significant effect on the way that the hearing of musicians—particularly orchestral and pit players—is protected in the workplace.

OSHA Noise Regulations

First off, let’s take a quick flyover look at the OSHA noise regulations that have been in place since 1971.  Basically, the regulations state that any employee who is subject to a high-level noise exposure in their workplace may be at risk for hearing loss, and the employer is obligated to reduce the employee’s noise exposure.  The limits set by OSHA vary depending a worker occupies a noisy environment:  the “action level” is set at 85dBA over an 8-hour workday, but exposure to levels of 100dBA can only last for a total of 1-hour per day before corrective action must be taken.  More detail on the sliding scale of noise exposure can be found here.

There are three ways that employers can reduce noise exposure.  The first is the use of “engineering controls”, which means that the employer has to do something to make the environment quieter.  This can be quite complicated/expensive.  The second option, use of “administrative controls”, also may be difficult:  this option requires careful management of the time that employees are exposed to the noisy environment.   It requires that employees be able to productively occupy more than one location during a given workday, moving in and out of the noisy space as required to limit noise exposure.  The third option, currently used is most often, is the use of “personal protective equipment (PPE)”.  This option requires employees to use earplugs or earmuffs, which results in the least effort/expense on the part of an employer.

You may ask: “Why would an employer use engineering or administrative controls when earplugs are an acceptable alternate?”  Well, according to the original OSHA regulations, they’re not.  Employers are required to use engineering or administrative controls if they are “feasible” and only use PPE if other options were not feasible.  In 1975, OSHA issued a policy that effectively translated “feasible” to mean “if you don’t think it will be too expensive”.  And since PPE is so much less expensive, it became the de facto standard strategy.

What’s Changed

The recent policy change has everything to do with the interpretation of the word “feasible”.  OSHA has decided that they are now going to use the “ordinary” meaning of the word, i.e. “capable of being done”.

Plenty of things that are technically feasible are also quite expensive, but the new OSHA policy further clarifies that they will consider any option to be economically feasible “when the cost of implementing such controls will not threaten the employer’s ability to remain in business.”  Basically, if the engineering/administrative options won’t bankrupt the employer, they must be implemented.  Whether viewed as a labor triumph or a management tragedy, it is certainly a significant shift in the approach to hearing conservation enforcement.

Orchestras & OSHA

Orchestras are loud places to work, and a number of studies have shown that sound levels can exceed the OSHA limits for short-term noise exposure.  The loudness within an orchestra is somewhat of an open secret among players. Part of the excitement of listening to an orchestra is the sheer forcefulness of sound emanating from 80+ musicians playing together.  It is a conundrum: a musician’s hearing is crucial to their ability to play in an ensemble, but being in an ensemble may endanger their hearing.  Opinions vary from musician to musician, with some more willing to have their hearing suffer for the sake of their art than others.  In the past 15 to 20 years, however, awareness of the danger to musicians’ hearing has been on the rise.

In that time, most orchestras have dealt with the concern by providing buckets of earplugs for musicians to use as they wish, and to place plexiglass screens in front of brass and percussion players to protect the forward players. It’s difficult to say whether this is always sufficient to satisfy OSHA-related concerns; there have been few publicized OSHA complaints involving orchestras, though a few have been openly reported.

• One of the most interesting ones to read about is the complaint involving the Boston Symphony in 1997.  This article, posted on the website of bass trombonist Doug Yeo, provides a fascinating account of the environment leading up to the complaint, differing opinions among players, and the symphony’s response to the complaint.  One of most fascinating things for me, was reading the report prepared by the symphony’s insurer which seems to contain a few analytical errors and which, if corrected, might have changed their conclusion that there was no OSHA violation!
• Another more widely reported case was the investigation into noise levels in Broadway pit orchestras conducted in 1999 at the behest of the musicians union Local 802.  This study found that pit musicians were exposed to levels above the OSHA limits in more than 20% of performances.

Even in the cases where violations are found, up until now orchestras have simply had to provide hearing protection (i.e. buckets of disposable earplugs) for musicians and leave it at that.  However, times may be changing…

Over in Europe

Times have already changed in Europe.  The Eurpoean Union issued a directive in 2003 (2003/10/EC) that mandated new legislation in EU member states to better protect workers from noise exposure.  In the UK, for example, this took the form of the “Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005”. The new regulations require engineering or administrative controls first, and only then reliance on PPE, which parallels the recent change in OSHA policy.

The response by British orchestras has been astonishing and admirable.  The Association of British Orchestras, in partnership with a number of other organizations, led the charge to determine how to implement these guidelines and protect their players.  They have developed several detailed resources including the “A Sound Ear II” booklet and the Sound Advice website that provide guidance and, in some cases, step-by-step recommendations for compliance.

They have dealt with noise concerns in a number of ways, including modifications to stages and pits to reduce loudness for musicians (when such changes do not diminish the beauty of the sound experienced by the audience) and careful tracking of musician’s schedules to limit their overall exposure.  If the reports are to be believed, these steps are working.

What May Happen in the US

The experience in Europe should offer us hope if OSHA enforcement changes according to the recent policy changes.  Orchestra managers and musicians who are concerned about hearing loss can even get ahead of the game and start considering taking such steps now.  Here are a few things to consider:

1. Information is critical.  The very first thing to be done is to take measurements of current noise exposure levels to establish a baseline.  Newer measuring devices (such as the doseBadge) can be nearly unnoticeable and do not disrupt musician’s movements.
2. Explore administrative options first, because they may be less-costly.  The Royal Opera House, for example, carefully tracks each musician’s anticipated noise exposure based not only rehearsal schedule but on the pieces scheduled for each rehearsal.  Granted, it takes some time to build up a database of loudness-by-piece and the like, but it can be extremely useful.
3. Explore engineering options that don’t require renovation.  There are a number of things that can reduce musician’s noise exposure such as modifying sectional layouts, changing chair spacing on stage, introducing screens between certain musicians, etc.
4. Explore engineering options that would help your players and not affect your audience.  Here we start to get into very hall-specific territory, but things like orchestra risers, sound absorption in orchestra pits, use of variable acoustics on stage during rehearsals, and the like can be used to reduce musician noise exposure.

We do not yet know what the next few years of OSHA enforcement will look like, but orchestras and musicians would do well to keep an open ear to the issue as it develops here in the US.