The Department of Labor’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is in charge of saving lives, preventing injuries, and safeguarding employees’ health. There are safety and health dangers on the building site, just as in any other business. Policies and procedures have been put in place by DOSH Perak to help decrease incidents and protect staff.

Noise pollution is a worldwide occupational health issue with severe physiological and social repercussions. Noise exposure at work can cause long-term and devastating hearing damage. As a result, beginning in 2019, the Malaysian Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) will implement the OSH Noise Exposure Regulations 2019, which will require all businesses to conduct noise monitoring and risk assessments (NRA). A Noise Risk Assessment Malaysia is designed to provide information about excessive noise in the workplace and help enterprises identify employees who may be exposed to it so that their exposures may be examined and a strategy put in place to address the company’s concerns.

As required by the Occupational Safety and Health (Noise) Regulations 2019, the NRA Risk Assessor (NRA) is responsible for undertaking noise exposure evaluations in the workplace. An employer must nominate, engage, or recruit a competent person known as a Noise Risk Assessor to undertake a Noise Risk Assessment (NRA) under the Department’s requirements.

The Noise Risk Assessor (NRA) must: Conduct Noise Risk Assessment (NRA) at the place of work as required by the Occupational Safety and Health (Noise Exposure) Regulations 2019 within the valid registration period.

• Notify the Director of the appropriate DOSH state at least 14 days before any noise risk assessment to ensure that the noise measuring equipment used for Noise Risk Assessment is correctly calibrated (NRA).
•  Within 30 days after completing the noise risk assessment, complete and submit a full report to the employer.
• Provide the results and recommendations for noise reduction to the employer within 30 days of the assessment’s completion.
• Submit a summary report to the Director-General within 30 days after completing the Noise Risk Assessment (NRA).

A partial or whole loss of hearing in one or both ears due to one’s profession is occupational hearing loss, including traumatic acoustic damage and occupational noise-related hearing diseases (ONRHD). Noise pollution is the most significant avoidable cause of irreversible hearing loss worldwide. As a result, under the Occupational Safety and Health (Noise Exposure) Regulations 2019, which have been in effect since June 2019 and have replaced the Factories and Machinery (Noise Exposure) Regulations 1989, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has amended In Malaysia, a network of businesses has established a Noise Risk Assessment competence to do noise risk assessments in the following areas:

• It conducts a noise risk assessment using authorized devices that fulfill the International Electrotechnical Commission’s standard for area noise monitoring and personal noise exposure monitoring (IEC).
• To gather, assess, and compare the findings of the area noise monitoring and personal noise exposure monitoring with the “Occupational Safety and Health (Noise Exposure) Regulations 2019” noise exposure limit.
• To assess and investigate the efficacy of current workplace control approaches.
•  Noise reduction solutions such as engineering control, alternative or design or process, administrative control, personal hearing protection, and others should be proposed.
• Recommend suitable programs to employees to reduce the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. The noise exposure limit imposed a more practical standard to control excessive noise exposure.

Tom Gardner