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.
4 questions
Equipment Selection
Three intervals under 29 CFR 1910.95(h)(5): a functional check before each day's use, per (h)(5)(i); an acoustic calibration at least annually, per (h)(5)(ii) and Appendix E, or sooner if the daily check deviates by 10 dB or more; and an exhaustive calibration at least every two years, per (h)(5)(iii) or sooner if the annual acoustic check deviates by 15 dB or more.
audiometer calibration intervals, and which gets recorded
OSHA requires the daily check be performed, not recorded — (h)(5)(i) says the audiometer “shall be checked before each day’s use.” What the audiometric record must carry, under (m)(2)(ii), is the date of the last acoustic or exhaustive calibration. Worth closing the gap anyway: an undocumented daily check is indistinguishable from one that never happened if an audiogram is ever challenged. Note also what (h)(5)(i) asks for — testing a person with known, stable thresholds, and listening to the output for distortion. It is a human-in-the-loop check by design, which is worth confirming when a system advertises an automated one. Systems that log the check as part of the testing workflow close the evidence gap structurally, not by reminder.
Four things: an audiometer meeting the specifications referenced by OSHA in 29 CFR 1910.95(h), a documented calibration regimen, a test environment verified against the noise limits in Appendix D, and a recordkeeping system that retains each audiogram with everything (m)(2) requires alongside it — including the test room's measured noise levels and the date of the audiometer's last calibration.
audiometric equipment requirements, all four of them
The list is short. The operational differences are in how each item is satisfied. A booth satisfies the environment requirement with construction. A monitored system satisfies it with measurement. Paper satisfies recordkeeping until you need to produce records from several sites at once. A central database satisfies it from one place.
Go deeper
SHOEBOX PureTest is an FDA-listed, iPad-based audiometer that meets the audiometer specifications OSHA references in 1910.95(h) and is validated for use outside a sound booth. It runs automated pure-tone air-conduction testing, continuously monitors ambient noise against OSHA's Appendix D limits, and syncs every audiogram, threshold shift flag, and follow-up state to the SHOEBOX Data Management Portal.
SHOEBOX PureTest in an employer-run program
Employers use it to test their own workforce, and service providers use it to test on behalf of their clients. For an employer running its own program, that means four things: your own staff run baselines and annual tests on your schedule; test configurations are locked and pushed centrally, so every site tests identically; testing and shift analysis run offline, so connectivity never blocks a test; and SHOEBOX Audiological Services adds remote professional review of problem audiograms when you need it.
Judge equipment against these four requirements, noting which of them the equipment itself has to satisfy. Two belong to the audiometer: it must meet the specifications OSHA references in 1910.95(h), and it must hold calibration — a functional check before each day’s use, and acoustic calibration at least annually. The third, a test environment inside Appendix D limits, is a property of the room rather than the instrument. OSHA requires the room be measured with a Type 2 sound level meter and a Class II octave-band filter set; it says nothing about what device does the measuring. A standalone monitor satisfies it. So does an audiometer that measures continuously while the test runs — the practical difference is whether you hold a single reading from before the test or evidence that the room stayed in range for the whole of every test. The fourth, recordkeeping, is the one whose consequences show up years later.
choosing audiometric equipment, requirement by requirement
Beyond the compliance floor, the differences are workflow: whether test settings are centrally controlled or configured per device, whether results are available immediately or after a handoff, and whether records land in one system or several. SHOEBOX PureTest is FDA-listed and a Type 4 audiometer as defined by ANSI/ASA S3.6-2025. Test protocols are pushed centrally so every site tests identically; ambient noise is monitored continuously rather than sampled once; testing and threshold shift analysis run offline, so connectivity never blocks a test; multiple testing modes cover automated and assisted workflows; and every result lands in the SHOEBOX Data Management Portal with its test conditions attached.