> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.whsbrief.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Earplugs Are Not a Noise Assessment: What SafeWork SA's Hearing Campaign Will Ask For - URL: https://www.whsbrief.com/earplugs-are-not-a-noise-assessment-what-safework-sas-hearing-campaign-will-ask-for/ - Published: 2026-11-09T22:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T22:29:59.000Z - Description: SafeWork SA is targeting noise in road transport and hospitality and wants to see source controls and a current noise assessment, not just earplugs. - Author: WHS Brief - Tags: blog On 2 November SafeWork SA and ReturnToWorkSA launched a joint campaign on work-related hearing loss. Their message is simple: the damage is permanent and the claims are rising. SafeWork SA inspectors are now folding noise into their ongoing compliance campaigns in road transport and hospitality, with a focus on businesses that have high compensation claims. Construction, manufacturing and transport workers are named as the most exposed. If you run a depot, a kitchen, a bar or a venue in South Australia, an inspector may ask about noise before the year is out. ### Why Hospitality and Transport? It is easy to picture hearing loss as a factory problem. Grinders, presses and compressors are the classic image. Hospitality rarely makes that list, yet a busy commercial kitchen with extraction fans, dishwashers and a crowded floor can be relentlessly loud. Bars and venues with amplified music are louder still. In road transport, workers spend long hours near engines, refrigeration units, loading equipment and air brakes. What these settings have in common is that the noise feels normal. Nobody thinks of a Saturday night service or a long linehaul shift as a hazardous exposure. That is exactly why the claims accumulate quietly. Ask yourself: - Has anyone ever measured noise in your workplace or are you relying on how it sounds? - Do your workers have to raise their voices to talk to someone a metre away? - Do people describe ringing ears or muffled hearing after a shift? - When did you last review your workers compensation claims for hearing loss? ### Earplugs Are Not the Plan The campaign is pointed about one thing. Employers are told to reduce noise at the source rather than relying on hearing protection alone. Earplugs and earmuffs sit near the bottom of the hierarchy of controls for a reason. They only work if they fit, if they are worn the whole time and if they suit the task. In a kitchen or a bar, where staff need to hear orders and each other, those conditions are hard to meet. Source controls are often less dramatic than people expect: - Quieter equipment specified at purchase, with noise ratings checked before you buy. - Maintenance of fans, bearings and compressors, since worn plant gets louder. - Distance and barriers between noisy plant and the places people work. - Limits on music volume, speaker placement and time spent in the loudest zones. ### The Paperwork an Inspector Will Expect The campaign lists the steps SafeWork SA expects to see. Identify and assess hazardous noise. Reduce it at the source. Train workers. Arrange audiometric testing where required. Then use the results to guide prevention. That last step is the one I think most businesses skip. Audiometric testing is not a tick-box. A worker whose results shift between tests is telling you that your controls are not working. If those results go into a file and nobody reads them, the testing has protected no one. The practical advice in the brief was direct: transport and hospitality employers should have a current noise assessment on file before an inspector asks. That means a document with measurements, dates and the controls that followed. ### Where to Start If you have never assessed noise, begin with a walk-through during your busiest period. Note the tasks and areas where people need to shout to be heard. Those are your candidates for a proper assessment by a competent person. If you already have an assessment, check its date and whether the equipment, layout or trading hours have changed since. If an inspector walked in during your loudest hour tomorrow, what would you hand them to show you had already measured it?