VANCOUVER—Although more workers in the oil and gas drilling sector are using ear plugs than ever before, work-related hearing loss is on the rise.

According to WorkSafeBC, hearing-test data shows that noise-induced hearing loss in the industry has gone up over the past five years, and more than half of the affected workers are under 35.

Sasha Brown, a WorkSafeBC occupational audiologist, suspects it’s because hearing protection isn’t being used properly.

“It does seem counterintuitive that people are wearing hearing protection and still getting hearing loss,” Brown said.

Using results collected by employers, the agency reports that in 2012, 33 per cent of workers tested had some kind of hearing loss from their careers, and in 2017 the percentage of workers who had lost hearing on the job was 45 per cent. At the same time, the percentage of workers using hearing protection rose from 94 to 98 per cent.

This stands in sharp contrast to other noisy work industries, for which, in 2017, only 13 per cent of workers showed noise-induced hearing loss.

“People are wearing hearing protection, which is fantastic,” she said. However, because they’re still experiencing hearing loss, Brown said it’s clear that simply using hearing protection isn’t enough.

“Not only do you have to wear hearing protection but you have to wear it properly and you have to wear it all the time,” Brown said.

According to WorkSafeBC regulations, employers in oil and gas drilling sector must provide yearly hearing tests for their workers and provide the results to the agency.

While visiting oil and gas rigs up in Fort St. John last year, Brown saw many people using foam earplugs, but she said they were often inserted incorrectly.

“When the noise is as loud as it can be in oil and gas, that’s not enough (to just insert earplugs). I think part of the problem is we’re seeing this heavy reliance on those compressible foam earplugs, which can be excellent but they can also be worn improperly very, very easily,” Brown said.

According to WorkSafeBC safety instructions, foam earplugs must be properly squished down and rolled, and a person should pull their ear up and back before inserting it into the ear canal. When inserted properly, the ear plugs shouldn’t be visible when looking at a person from the front.

They also come in different sizes, Brown said, and if they’re too big or too small they can fall out easily. And, depending on noise levels, sometimes workers need to be wearing over-the-ear ear muffs in addition to the earplugs.

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Of the 294 B.C. oil-and-gas drilling workers who experienced hearing loss, 194 of them were 35-years-old or younger.

To remedy the issue, WorkSafeBC is releasing safety warning bulletins to workers and employers and it will continue to monitor the workers’ mandated yearly hearing tests.

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