OSHA Kicks Off 'Hear and Now - Noise Safety Challenge'

Every year 22 million workers are at risk of losing their hearing from workplace noise hazards. Hearing loss disability costs businesses an estimated $242 million annually in workers' compensation. This is why OSHA is partnering with other agencies to offer a challenge to inventors and entrepreneurs: Help develop a technological solution to workplace noise exposure and related hearing loss.

OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, in partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, have launched the "Hear and Now – Noise Safety Challenge."

The competition is open to the general public. Idea submissions are due by Sept. 30. Ten finalists will be invited to Washington, D.C., to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges that will include investors and representatives of NIOSH and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For details, read the news release.