Protect Your Hearing Month, also called National Protect Your Hearing Month, is observed every October to raise awareness of noise-induced hearing loss and how to prevent it. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, promotes the month along with other health and hearing organizations.
For employers, it is a natural point to check on a hearing conservation program. Noise-induced hearing loss is permanent, it builds up slowly, and it is almost entirely preventable when noise is measured, controlled and paired with protection that workers actually wear.
When Is Protect Your Hearing Month in 2027?
Protect Your Hearing Month runs for the full month of October, from Friday, October 1 through Sunday, October 31, 2027. The timing does not change from year to year, so it is easy to build into an annual safety calendar alongside other October observances such as Fire Prevention Week.
Any campaign materials for a given year are released by NIDCD, so check its site in late summer. The core message stays the same: sounds can damage your hearing when they are too loud, and the damage can be prevented.
Why It Matters at Work
Noise is one of the most common workplace health hazards. According to the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), about 22 million workers are exposed to hazardous noise each year, and 24 percent of the hearing difficulty among U.S. workers is due to workplace exposures. NIOSH recommends keeping exposure below 85 decibels, A-weighted (dBA), as an 8-hour time-weighted average.
The problem goes beyond the plant floor. NIDCD notes, citing CDC, that about 40 million U.S. adults ages 20 to 69 have hearing loss from noise, and more than half of them report no on-the-job exposure to loud noise. Lawn equipment, power tools, concerts and earbuds all add to the total dose a worker brings to the job.
Hearing loss affects more than quality of life. Workers who cannot hear well may miss alarms, backup beepers, radio calls and shouted warnings. Tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears, often comes with noise damage and can make concentration and sleep harder. Because the damage happens gradually and without pain, many workers do not notice it until it is permanent.
How to Take Part
Use October to look at noise with fresh eyes. Practical ideas for a workplace or fleet:
- Update your noise map. Review sound level surveys and dosimetry results. If equipment, layouts or shifts have changed, schedule new monitoring.
- Look for engineering fixes first. Using the hierarchy of controls, consider enclosures, mufflers, vibration isolation, quieter equipment and maintenance on worn bearings and loose guards before relying on earplugs.
- Run a hearing protector fit check. Offer several styles of earplugs and earmuffs, and show workers how to insert foam plugs correctly. A poorly fitted plug can provide very little protection.
- Post signs and mark high-noise areas. Make it obvious where protection is required, including in shops, generator rooms and around compressors.
- Review audiogram trends. Check whether any employees have had a standard threshold shift and whether follow-up and refitting were completed.
- Share NIDCD materials. NIDCD offers free shareable graphics and information on noise-induced hearing loss that work well on breakroom boards and in newsletters.
- Talk about off-the-job noise. Encourage workers to protect their hearing when mowing, using power tools, hunting or listening to music.
Toolbox Talk: Protecting Your Hearing on the Job
Use this 5-minute toolbox talk at the start of a shift.
- Hearing loss from noise is permanent. The tiny hair cells in the inner ear do not grow back. Once they are damaged, hearing aids can help, but your natural hearing does not return.
- Know the warning signs. If you have to raise your voice to talk to someone an arm's length away, the noise is probably hazardous. Ringing ears or muffled hearing after a shift are signs of damage.
- Wear protection the whole time you are exposed. Taking earplugs out for even a short part of a loud task cuts their protection sharply. Put them in before you enter the noisy area.
- Fit matters. Roll foam plugs into a thin cylinder, reach over your head to pull the ear up and back, insert, and hold for a few seconds while the plug expands. Earmuffs need a good seal, so watch out for glasses arms and hair.
- Report noise problems. A rattling machine, a missing muffler or a broken enclosure door is a hazard. Report it so it can be fixed at the source.
- Protect your hearing at home too. Mowers, chainsaws, firearms and loud earbuds add to the same total exposure.
Discussion question: Where in our work area do you find it hardest to wear hearing protection, and what would make it easier?
Related Requirements
OSHA's occupational noise exposure standard at 29 CFR 1910.95 sets a permissible exposure limit of 90 dBA as an 8-hour time-weighted average, using a 5 dBA exchange rate. Employers must use feasible engineering or administrative controls when exposures exceed that limit.
In general industry, employers must also run a hearing conservation program when exposures reach the 85 dBA action level averaged over 8 hours. The program includes noise monitoring, audiometric testing with a baseline and annual audiograms, hearing protectors at no cost to employees, annual training and recordkeeping. Construction has its own noise rules. See OSHA's occupational noise exposure overview for details.
How SMS360 Helps
Hearing conservation depends on consistent follow-through: surveys repeated on schedule, protectors checked, training completed and problems fixed. The SMS360 Audits & Inspections module lets you build digital checklists for noise surveys and hearing protection compliance walks, run them from a mobile device, and assign corrective actions when a guard, enclosure or sign needs attention. You can also schedule and track hearing conservation training, store monitoring reports and program documents, and use dashboards to see open items across sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Protect Your Hearing Month 2027?
Protect Your Hearing Month is observed throughout October, so in 2027 it runs from October 1 to October 31. The month is the same every year, which makes it easy to plan training and inspections in advance.
Who sponsors Protect Your Hearing Month?
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health, promotes the month. Hearing health organizations, audiologists and safety groups also use October to share prevention messages.
What noise level requires hearing protection at work?
Under OSHA's general industry standard, a hearing conservation program is required when exposures reach 85 dBA averaged over an 8-hour workday, and hearing protectors must be made available to those workers. Above 90 dBA, employers must also use feasible engineering or administrative controls, and protectors must be worn. NIOSH recommends a lower practical target, keeping exposures below 85 dBA.
