MONTREAL — The FTQ is campaigning against noise in the workplace, while Quebec will finally lower the noise exposure limit, but only in June 2023.
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The daily noise exposure limit in the workplace will then be increased from 90 to 85 decibels.
“Quebec joins the Canadian provinces on the standard of daily exposure (8 hours) to noise of 85 dBA”, specified the Commission for the standards of equity, health and safety at work (CNESST), questioned. on this subject.
The CNESST explains that this preventive measure “aims to reduce occupational deafness, by updating regulatory requirements and references concerning noise exposure and hearing protection”.
From 2011 to 2020, the CNESST recorded 67,323 lesions “registered and accepted for occupational deafness”.
The FTQ, which has been campaigning for years for greater concern about noise in the workplace, wants us to prepare now.
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“We’ve been behind for a long time. We will be back until June 16, 2023. In terms of prevention, we are doing poorly in Quebec. We said it during the study of Bill 59 (workplace health and safety reform): we are far from everyone in North America. And this is also true for noise; we have to correct the shot, ”pleaded in an interview the president of the FTQ, Daniel Boyer.
“The first objective is to eliminate at the source. We tell our activists on the ground: the problem of noise has existed for a very long time. And it is not because there is a standard that will be modified in 2023 that we should not act now. We are going to put pressure in our workplaces to make it safer for workers, ”warned the president of the central union of more than 600,000 members.
“We won’t wait until 2023. Workplaces are capable of taking charge, of trying as much as possible to eliminate the noise problem at the source. Otherwise, although there are individual means of protection.”
The president of the FTQ also invites employers to involve workers in their efforts, because they can provide solutions.
“There are several companies that modify their machinery, because they are robotizing more and there is artificial intelligence. If we change the machines, we must be concerned that the noise must be less and acceptable, ”argued Mr. Boyer.
According to the FTQ, more than 400,000 Quebecers are exposed to average noise levels above 85 decibels during their eight-hour shift.
Lia Lévesque, The Canadian Press