State, Feds Don't Pay Attention to Office Noise

QUESTION: I am a city employee. For several years I have had to work in an environment where most of my co-workers listen to a radio or walkman. The noise interferes greatly with my concentration. It also disturbs a few other workers, who have complained to me but taken no action. What I want to know is, don't I have a right to a workplace where I can do my job in peace and quiet? --Donald Kaplan

ANSWER: In my last column, in response to your question, we heard from legal experts. This time we'll explore the role of government agencies, working our way from the top down.

The federal government does have workplace noise standards. They are issued and monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA. These regulations, however, were crafted with an industrial environment in mind, resulting in two major disadvantages for you and others in your situation.

First, the target of the standards is loud -- as opposed to low- or high-frequency -- noise, such as that generated by heavy machinery. (This was confirmed by Chris Hoffman of OSHA's Regional Administrator's office.)

The standards first apply only where a worker is being exposed to noise of 90 decibels for more than eight hours daily. Ninety decibels is more or less what the noise from a motorcycle or vacuum cleaner would register.

The racket spilling out from even a dozen walkmans in a closed area such as an office wouldn't reach anywhere near 90 decibels. Nor would a radio or TV, unless, of course, they are blasted, which, based on our conversations, is not the case where you work.

Second, the principal health concern of OSHA regulations is hearing -- not psychological or emotional discomfort.

However, last year, another federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), issued extensive guidelines advising employers of their obligation not to discriminate against workers with psychiatric disabilities, and how to accommodate these individuals so as not to violate the Americans With Disabilities Act. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way insinuating that you have emotional problems. What I'm getting at is this: Given the large toll the noise is taking on you emotionally, it might qualify as a disability for which your employer must take action -- while maintaining in the strictest confidence your situation.

One of the several references to noise in the EEOC guidelines is: "moving an individual away from noisy machinery or reducing other workplace noise that can be adjusted (e.g., lowering the volume or pitch of telephones or similar reasonable accommodations)." Other reasonable accommodations suggested are "room dividers, partitions, or other soundproofing or visual barriers between workspaces."

On the state level, there is PESH, the Public Employees Safety and Health division of the New York State Department of Labor. It enforces OSHA's noise standards. And so, the following remarks from one of its information specialists, made on the condition of anonymity, are as unsurprising as they are unhelpful: "We don't have standards to address [Mr. Kaplan's issue]. We enforce safety and health hazards. Serious hazards. We don't regulate comfort-type issues. We come into play when it [the noise] is a health hazard, where it affects hearing."

One thing having led to another, the cautious state employee let his hair down and confessed that radio-playing is prevalent in his office and that he finds it distracting.

He spoke of having worked in construction for a number of years, where daylong exposure to noise made him "a very miserable person" and gave him an enduring awareness of the stressfulness of noise and its devastation of more than just hearing.

The most interesting part of the confession, though, was the statement that "management must be pro-active and require that certain things be banned." This will be addressed in the next column.

John Dallas is founder of the Bronx Campaign for Peace and Quiet. Write to him in care of: Norwood News, 75 E. 208th St., Bronx, NY 10467.

Recent Sound Advice Columns include:

• Neighbors' Practice Not Always Perfect

• Gadgets Have Them Confined to Their Cells

• Another Problem With Noise: It's Depressing

• The Big Screen Becomes the Big Scream

• Working It Out With Noisy Colleagues
  

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