California Code of Regulations
Title 8 - Industrial Relations
Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations
Chapter 7 - Department of Industrial Relations
Subchapter 1 - Occupational Injury or Illness Reports and Records
Article 2 - Employer Records of Occupational Injury or Illness
Section 14300.10 - Recording Criteria for Cases Involving Occupational Hearing Loss
Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 38, September 20, 2024
(a) Basic requirement. If an employee's hearing test (audiogram) reveals that the employee has experienced a work-related Standard Threshold Shift (STS) in hearing in one or both ears, and the employee's total hearing level is 25 decibels (dB) or more above audiometric zero (averaged at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz) in the same ear(s) as the STS, you must record the case on the Cal/OSHA Form 300.
(b) Implementation.
Yes. When you are determining whether an STS has occurred, you may age adjust the employee's current audiogram results by using Tables F as appropriate, in Appendix F of Title 8 General Industry Safety Orders, Article 105, section 5095 to 5100. You may not use an age adjustment when determining whether the employee's total hearing level is 25 dB or more above audiometric zero.
No, if you retest the employee's hearing within 30 days of the first test, and the retest does not confirm the recordable STS, you are not required to record the hearing loss case on the Cal/OSHA 300 Log. If the retest confirms the recordable STS, you must record the hearing loss illness within seven (7) calendar days of the retest. If subsequent audiometric testing performed under the testing requirements of the noise standard at section 5097 indicates that an STS is not persistent, you may erase or line-out the recorded entry.
No. You must use the rules in section 14300.5 to determine if the hearing loss is work-related. If an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the hearing loss, or significantly aggravated a pre-existing hearing loss, you must consider the case to be work related.
If a physician or other licensed health care professional determines that the hearing loss is not work-related or has not been significantly aggravated by occupational noise exposure, you are not required to consider the case work-related or to record the case on the Cal/OSHA Form 300.
When you enter a recordable hearing loss case on the Cal/OSHA Form 300, you must check the 300 Log column for hearing loss.
1. New
section filed 1-15-2002; operative 1-15-2002 pursuant to Government Code
section
11343.4
(Register 2002, No. 3).
2. Repealer and new section filed
12-30-2002; operative 1-1-2003 pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4
(Register 2003, No. 1).
3. Amendment of subsections (a) and (a)(7)
and amendment of NOTE filed 4-23-2004; operative 4-23-2004 pursuant to
Government Code section
11343.4
(Register 2004, No. 17).
4. Change without regulatory effect
amending subsections (a) and (b)(7) filed 8-22-2007 pursuant to section
100, title 1, California Code of
Regulations (Register 2007, No. 34).
Note: Authority cited: Section 6410, Labor Code. Reference: Section 6410, Labor Code; and 29 Code of Federal Regulations Section 1904.10.
