SHORT COURSES

Level: Introductory

Facilitators: Derek Hillis, Senior Environmental Scientist / Health and Safety Manager, Ecometrix Inc.

Noise exposures are a serious, yet under-appreciated occupational hazard in the mining industry. Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) claims between 2006 and 2015 accounted for nearly 25% of all allowed occupational disease claims in Ontario, highlighting the personal and financial costs. 

The collection of spot check measurements and personal dosimetry for noise is often downloaded to health and safety coordinators, safety engineers and human resource professionals.  While instrumentation has made the collection of noise measurements easy, there is often little understanding of the science and properties of the noise measurements collected, or how those measurements can be used to practically refine hearing conservation programs and controls. 

This course is designed to provide a base understanding of the properties, health effects, regulatory environment of noise and what information is required to complete a thorough and useful noise exposure assessment.  These base principles will be expanded upon to show how the data collected from a noise exposure assessment can be used for predictive evaluations and application to a hearing conservation and control program including; calculation of allowable exposure times, adjustment for exposure durations, distance attenuation and predictive calculation of noise levels from multiple noise sources. 

The course will be taught in an interactive manner, with break-out sessions to practice and apply the lessons learned.

Short Course Objectives:

Understand the properties, health effects, regulatory environment and basis of a thorough noise exposure assessment and application of the properties of noise to refine hearing conservation and control programs.

Target Audience:

Safety Engineers, Health and Safety Coordinators, Human Resource Professionals, Design and Process Engineers.

About the instructors:

Dr. Hillis is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and Senior Risk Assessor at Ecometrix Incorporated with 25 years of environmental consulting experience in the fields of industrial hygiene, human exposure assessment, toxicology and risk assessment. Dr. Hillis has successfully led teams to complete all aspects of human health and ecological risk assessments in support of a Records of Site Condition (RSC) as required by Ontario Regulation 153/04 (O. Reg. 153/04), Sites regulated under the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) as well as the development of associated Risk Management Plans (RMPs). Due diligence risk assessments have been completed for a variety of municipal clients and private developers to evaluate environmental liability prior to purchasing a Site or during the development process. As an industrial hygienist, Dr. Hillis has completed hundreds of exposure assessments for a wide variety of physical, biological and chemical agents for a diverse range of clients in the petrochemical, manufacturing, agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as during remediation and construction activities. Projects range from occupational and environmental noise exposure assessments, air sampling program development and strategies, dermal exposure studies, toxicological evaluations, community exposure evaluations as well as hazardous materials and designated substance assessments.