For more than 40 years, noise exposure in the workplace has been regulated in the United States. Well before government regulations were set in place, the U.S. military, along with a progressive group of private industries, took interest in helping to prevent hearing loss from noise exposures by providing hearing protection for workers and seeking to reduce noise through engineering controls. Looking back, these efforts are seen as “innovative” due to the leadership and problem-solving skills these organizations helped initiate.
More recently, governmental organizations such as OSHA, MSHA and the Department of Defense have helped create regulations focused on the following areas: