Occupational Hearing Testing Resources
Occupational Hearing Testing FAQ
Authoritative answers to the real-world questions occupational health professionals face — from OSHA compliance edge cases and audiometer calibration to program design and SHOEBOX platform specifics.
6 questions
Audiometric Testing
Yes. Under 29 CFR 1910.95(g)(6), employers must provide an audiometric test at least annually for every employee exposed at or above the 85 dB action level. Each annual test is compared against the employee's baseline audiogram to check for a Standard Threshold Shift.
annual testing rules auditors actually check
The annual test is the mechanism that detects hearing change early enough to act. It’s also the element that lapses in practice: employees missed on test day, new hires between vendor visits, and sites that fell off the schedule. An auditor doesn’t ask whether you ran testing. They ask for the list of covered employees and check it against your audiograms.
Twice defined: a baseline audiogram within six months of an employee's first exposure at or above the action level, then a test at least annually thereafter. One exception: where mobile test vans are used, the baseline is due within one year rather than six months, and hearing protectors are required from month six until the baseline is obtained.
audiometric testing frequency, including the van exception
The one-year allowance attaches to the testing method, not the employee: it applies where testing depends on a scheduled mobile visit, and it carries a condition—hearing protectors must be worn from month six until the baseline is obtained. Six months remains the default everywhere else. Knowing which applies to a given employee matters, because the two rules produce different answers to “is this baseline late?”
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.95(g) and (h) require baseline and annual audiograms for employees at or above the action level, testing by qualified personnel, audiometers meeting the referenced ANSI specification with documented calibration, a test environment within Appendix D noise limits, and defined follow-up when a Standard Threshold Shift is identified.
OSHA audiometric testing requirements in sequence
The requirements chain together: a valid audiogram requires a valid environment and a calibrated instrument; a valid program requires reviewing every audiogram against baseline; a confirmed shift starts a clock. Each link is auditable, which is why documentation of test conditions matters as much as the test itself.
Mobile audiometric testing brings the test to the workplace: traditionally, a van or trailer with built-in booths that visit on a scheduled date, and, more recently, tablet-based systems that test inside your own facility year-round. Both are “on-site.” They differ in scheduling, capacity, and what happens between visits.
mobile audiometric testing: van visits versus year-round
The van model concentrates testing into visit windows: efficient for testing everyone at once at a single site, but harder for night shifts, absences, and new hires who need baselines between visits. Facility-based systems like SHOEBOX PureTest keep testing capability on-site year-round, so off-schedule employees, absences, and new-hire baselines are handled whenever they come up rather than at the next visit.
Within 6 months of an employee's first exposure at or above the 85 dB action level, per 29 CFR 1910.95(g)(5)(i). The baseline must be preceded by at least 14 hours without workplace noise exposure, per (g)(5)(iii). Hearing protectors may substitute for the quiet period.
baseline audiogram deadlines and the 14-hour quiet period
Test baselines at the start of a shift, after a day off. That is how the 14-hour quiet period is met in practice, and it matters because the baseline is the reference every future test is measured against: a baseline recorded after a noisy shift can be temporarily depressed, and a depressed baseline makes later shifts look smaller than they are—or hides them entirely. The requirement reaches past the workplace as well. Under (g)(5)(iv), employers must notify employees to avoid high levels of non-occupational noise during those 14 hours, which makes a concert or a range session the night before a scheduling problem too.
The standard includes one exception. Under (g)(5)(ii), where mobile test vans are used, the baseline is due within one year rather than six months, and hearing protectors are required from month six until it is obtained. The exception exists because visit schedules and hire dates rarely line up. On-site testing capability makes the question moot: a baseline can run in a new hire’s first week, at the start of a shift, which is also when the 14-hour quiet period is easiest to satisfy.
Under 29 CFR 1910.95(g)(3), audiometric tests must be performed by a licensed or certified audiologist, otolaryngologist or other physician, or by a technician (CAOHC-certified or with demonstrated competence) responsible to one of those professionals. A technician who operates a microprocessor audiometer does not need federal certification.
audiometric technician qualifications under 1910.95(g)(3)
The microprocessor exemption makes it possible to conduct in-house testing with your existing safety or occupational health staff. Two separate requirements still apply: the technician must be responsible to an audiologist, otolaryngologist, or physician under (g)(3), and problem audiograms must be reviewed by one of those professionals under (g)(7)(iii). Some states, such as Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Ohio, add their own certification or registration requirements. The routine comparison of an annual audiogram against baseline is required but unassigned: (g)(7)(i) says only that it “may be done by a technician,” which is why it usually falls to whoever ran the test.