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Toolbox Talks
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Noise and Hearing Awareness

For workers around noisy plant, tools or processes: how noise damages hearing for good, how to tell when it is too loud, and the controls that protect it.

  • SeriesToolbox Talks
  • AudienceWorkers in noisy workplaces
  • Duration20–30 minutes
  • CodeHAZ-NOI
  • Version1.0 · 873 KB ZIP

About this package

Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent and builds up gradually, so it often goes unnoticed until it is too late. Very loud short noises can also cause immediate damage, and noise can contribute to tinnitus, fatigue and incidents when warnings are not heard.

This talk covers the workplace exposure standard for noise, simple ways to tell when noise is likely to be too loud, the hierarchy of control for noise, wearing hearing protection properly the whole time, and audiometric testing.

Learning outcomes

After the session, participants will be able to:

  • Explain how noise causes permanent hearing loss and tinnitus
  • Describe the exposure standard for noise: an eight-hour average of 85 dB(A), and a peak of 140 dB(C)
  • Recognise when noise is likely to be too loud, such as having to raise your voice to talk to someone a metre away
  • Describe controls that reduce noise at the source: quieter equipment, maintenance, enclosures and distance
  • Choose, fit and wear hearing protection correctly for the whole time in noisy areas
  • Explain audiometric testing and why workers who need hearing protection have it

Training outline

MODULE 1

How noise harms

  • Hearing loss and tinnitus
  • Gradual and sudden damage
  • Noise and other risks
MODULE 2

How loud is too loud

  • The exposure standard
  • The one-metre test
  • Signs and mandatory hearing protection areas
MODULE 3

Controls

  • Quieter equipment and maintenance
  • Isolation, enclosures and distance
  • Hearing protection: choosing, fitting, wearing
  • Audiometric testing

What is in the package

Training

  • Editable PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes, plus PDF
  • Facilitator guide with a running sheet, discussion prompts and model answers
  • Participant handout with the key points to take away

Records and assessment

  • Attendance record form, to capture who attended, when, and who facilitated
  • Excel attendance register
  • Multiple-choice theory assessment, to record understanding if your business wants to
  • Answer key for the assessment
  • Certificate template

Start here

  • Read Me First guide
  • Product overview
  • Permitted use terms
  • Version information

Practical activities

  • Fit it right: a demonstration of fitting foam earplugs and checking earmuff seals
  • Noise map: workers mark the noisy areas and tasks in their workplace and the controls in each

Delivery requirements

  • A facilitator such as a supervisor, leading hand or WHS adviser who has read the facilitator guide and knows your site's arrangements for the topic
  • A screen or projector, or printed slides or handouts: it works in a crib room, site office or on a video call
  • Your own site procedures for the topic, to point to during the session

File formats

  • PowerPoint (.pptx), editable, with speaker notes
  • Word (.docx), editable
  • Excel (.xlsx) attendance register
  • PDF copies of the slides, guide, handout and forms
  • Delivered as a single ZIP download

Questions about this package

Can we add our own site procedures and photos?

Yes. The slides, handout and guide are editable, and the facilitator guide marks the places to add your own procedures, contacts and photos of your workplace.

Do we have to use the assessment?

No. It is there if your business wants a record that each worker understood the key points. The attendance record on its own shows who attended and when.

Can we edit the documents?

Yes. Presentations, guides, workbooks and templates are supplied in editable formats so you can adapt them to your workplace. The copyright notice must stay.

Can we use the packages outside Australia?

Yes. The hazards and the controls in each toolbox talk apply in any workplace. The duties slide and the facilitator guide's "check before you deliver" table refer to Australian WHS and OHS laws, licences and standards, so a business elsewhere should swap those for its own country's rules. Everything is editable.

Do participants get a certificate?

Yes. The package includes an editable certificate template, an attendance record (Word, plus an Excel register) and an optional 10-question multiple-choice assessment with an answer key, so you can record who attended and, if you choose, that each worker understood the key points. It is a certificate of completion issued by your business, not a nationally recognised qualification.

Can we deliver it face to face and online?

Yes. The packages are designed for face-to-face sessions and work over a video meeting platform. The facilitator guide notes where an activity needs adjusting for online delivery.

Can we run it more than once?

Yes, as many times as you like, for your own organisation's workers.

What is your refund policy?

Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law are not affected. See the Refund Policy for how we handle a package that is faulty, not as described, or not what you ordered.

Do we get future updates?

You keep the version you bought for as long as you use it, and corrections to that version are made available to you. A new edition, for example following a significant change in the law, may be sold separately.

More answers on the home page, or contact us.

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