(1) The employer must record a hearing loss case on the OSHA 300 Log and check the column for hearing loss if an employee's hearing test (audiogram) reveals that a work-related standard threshold shift (STS) has occurred in one or both ears. Audiometric testing is required by chapter 296-817 WAC, Hearing loss prevention (noise).

(2) Minimum recordable hearing thresholds. It is not required to record an STS when the average threshold level for the employee's current audiogram at 2000 Hz, 3000 Hz, and 4000 Hz average less than 25 dB. No age adjustment is allowed for this determination.

(3) Age related hearing loss. The employer may age adjust the employee's current audiogram results by using Tables A-1 or A-2 in Appendix A of this chapter to determine if it must be recorded (evaluations from WAC 296-817-20035(3) are still required). Compare the age-adjusted audiogram to the employee's original baseline audiogram or the last audiogram that resulted in a recordable STS (do not age adjust the baseline or previously recorded audiogram). If the average threshold shift at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz from the original baseline or previously recorded audiogram to the current age adjusted audiogram is less than 10 dB, the hearing loss case is not required to be recorded.

(4) The employer is not required to record the hearing loss case on the OSHA 300 Log if they retest the employee's hearing within thirty days of the first test, and the retest does not confirm the STS. If the retest confirms the STS, the employer must record the hearing loss illness within seven calendar days of the retest. If subsequent audiometric testing indicates that an STS is not persistent, the employer may erase or line-out the recorded entry.

(5) Work-relatedness.

(a) The employer must consider the case to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the hearing loss or significantly aggravated a preexisting hearing loss.

(b) The employer is not required to consider the case work-related or recordable if a physician or other licensed health care professional determines, following the rules set out in WAC 296-27-01103 Determination of work-relatedness, that the hearing loss is not work-related or has not been significantly aggravated by occupational noise exposure.