Maritime offshore operations—occupational noise monitoring, assessment and control

Abstract

With increasing emphasis on occupational health as a component of maritime safety case requirements for Australia, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA), in keeping with their goal of improving health and safety outcomes across the industry, has ramped up their expectations on noise management plans (NMP).

Now the expectation includes noise risk assessments and evaluation and implementation of feasible engineering noise controls, and NOPSA have added scrutiny of ototoxic substances as well, all of which parallel international trends.

NOPSA surveys have found rather poor industry compliance with noise management requirements overall, and have stated that they will continue to promote the issues and will not hesitate to take enforcement action to improve compliance.

Occupational noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is 100% permanent and 100% preventable. Failing to prevent NIHL has significant human, economic, legal and operational impacts. NIHL results in diminished quality of life including isolation and communication problems that affect social interactions. The economic effects of NIHL include lost time and decreased productivity, loss of otherwise qualified and experienced workers through medical disqualification, workers’ compensation costs and disability settlements, retraining costs and expenses related to medical intervention and treatment.

Noise-impaired communications affect workplace operational and health and safety performance, and noisy ship and maritime platform accommodations and common areas adversely affect staff comfort, fatigue, morale and general well-being.