Nominations for the 2022 Safe-in-Sound Awards Are Due June 8

The deadline to nominate organizations or individuals to receive a Safe-in-Sound Award in 2022 is June 8, 2021. The Safe-in-Sound Awards are presented annually by NIOSH in partnership with the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) and the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC). The awards recognize those who demonstrate by example the benefits of developing or following good hearing loss prevention practices. Two awards are given: the Excellence Award, which honors employers who implement exemplary hearing loss prevention programs, and the Innovation Award, which recognizes those who create innovative solutions to real workplace hearing loss prevention challenges.

NIOSH, NHCA, and CAOHC are accepting nominations for the next round of awards. To start the nomination process, interested individuals should submit a letter via email to Safe-in-Sound Review Committee Coordinator Scott Schneider by June 8, 2021, that describes the noise control or other hearing loss prevention intervention that suggests excellence or innovation. Self-nominations are encouraged. Completed nominations will be due by July 15, 2021.

This year’s recipient of the Safe-in-Sound Award for Innovation was the team Vertical Lift, AH-64 Apache Helicopter of the Boeing Company in Mesa, Arizona. The group of production employees and in-house engineers was recognized for developing a noise suppression kit to reduce noise levels generated when workers need to test the Apache helicopters.

Additional information on the nomination process is available on the Safe-in-Sound website​​​ and in a SynergistNOW blog post authored in 2019 by Scott Schneider. A post published in April 2020 features interviews with past winners of the Safe-in-Sound Awards.