Show The Voice Voce of Business J You'll have hove l to 10 speak up By By Richard L I. Lesher President of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States State How flow noisy is too noisy There has been a deafening debate going on in Washington over that question And a lot is at stake in the outcome For the worker it could be his hearing or his job For the businessman It could be his business And for Cor the consumer it could be another big boost for Cor inflation TilE THE ISSUE breaks down into two parts 1 What's the highest level of oC noise a worker can be subjected to on the job without suffering serious permanent damage to his hearing 2 What's the best way to protect him from Crom noise levels higher than that Everybody agrees that the worker should be protected from dangerous noise levels But that's where the agreement ends One might expect business and labor to be at odds and they are but in this case the four federal agencies involved cant can't even agree with one another Some experts believe the upper noise limit should be 90 decibels That's about as noi noisy y as a busy New York subway station In this camp to varying degrees are representatives of industry the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Council on Wage and Price Stability Other experts believe 90 is too high and want the standard to be 85 5 which is about the noise level of a busy street corner Organized labor and the Environmental Protection Agency favor the lower level MUCH MORE important than the level however is how itis iUs to tobe tobe tobe be reached The simplest least expensive and most most effective way of protecting ti g a workers worker's hearing from a noisy environment is to equip him with a set of custom fitted ear plugs or ear muffs which look like hi hi-fi headphones headphones headphones head head- phones without a cord The alternative is to redesign all machinery to make it quieter in operation Labor and all of oC the government government govern govern- ment agencies but one w want nt industry to try redesign first to the extent feasible and to resort to e ear r plugs only If redesign fails Representatives of oC industry say it doesn't make much sense to lo choose the most mast expensive possible solution redesign when theres there's a better way to do doIt doIt doIt It that costs far Car less HOW MUCH less Personal ear protection for all who need it would cost about 23 million Modifying or replacing present factory equipment to meet the proposed noise standards standards- IC if it could be done at all all all- could cost up to billion Even OSHA puts the cost as high as 31 billion in 1973 dollars Remember that cost represents a figure all of oC us as consumers would wind up paying The investment required would raise the cost of oC production but it would not make production more efficient therefore the increased cost would have to be tacked on to the price of oC the product Why not use ear plugs Well say labor representatives they might be uncomfortable and workers might not wear them But safety glasses and safety shoes shoe's are also a nuisance and yet workers are willing to wear them for their own good TilE THE COUNCIL on Wage and Price Stability the governments government's governments government's governments government's govern govern- ments ment's inflation anti-inflation watchdog chided OSHA and EPA for Cor their wide divergence of opinion on fundamental issues and the fact that they seem to be either unwilling or unable to cooperate to narrow their differences The Council also warned that Inappropriately inappropriately stringent standards can lead to layoffs add to industrial industrial industrial in in- and consumer costs tests and impair the ability of Industry industry industry in In- to finance badly needed capital improvements And it does seem strange when you think about it that the same Federal Government that doesn't consider three-point three auto safety belts too great an inconvenience for the motorist is nevertheless willing to spend billion of our money to save some factory workers from ear plugs If you agree call your congressman and give him an earful |