Photo credit: Daria Sannikova from Pexels
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This article in the Tricity News reports that the Canadian provincial equivalent of a state occupational safety and health organization in the U.S., WorkSafe BC, just issued a warning on noise to restaurant servers and bartenders. Specifically, WorkSafe BC warned that “[h]earing loss in the workplace can be just as damaging in the service industry as it is in heavy industrial settings.”
Patrons are only in a restaurant or bar for an hour or two, but the workers may be there for an 8-hour shift, and often the noise exposure is loud enough for a long enough period to damage hearing. No surprise then that WorkSafe BC issued the warning. One wonders what it would take for OSHA–or a state or local government health agency–to act to protect the hearing of service industry workers.
Additional information is available on the WorkSafe BC website.
