Johns Manville Earns 2013 Safe-in-Sound Award for Innovation

Johns Manville (JM), a leading manufacturer of premium-quality products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofing, and roof insulation, as well as fibers and nonwovens for commercial, industrial and residential applications, is pleased to announce that it recently earned a 2013 Safe-in-Sound^TM Award for Innovation in Hearing Loss Prevention from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA).

JM was presented with the award last week at the 38^th Annual Hearing Conservation Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. The award recognized JM’s development and application of innovative hearing loss prevention program metrics. Rather than an injury/illness-based focus that relies only on the traditional Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable hearing loss cases (known as a Standard Threshold Shift, or STS) and meeting regulatory requirements, JM’s program integrates four additional metrics. The company’s Hearing Loss Prevention Pyramid incorporates both leading and lagging indicators of hearing conservation program effectiveness. These additional metrics include an early audiometric notch index, validation of fit of hearing protection devices, a noise level index designed to track noise exposure levels weighted by full-time equivalents (FTEs) and most importantly, execution of meaningful noise reduction projects at each JM facility.

Vice President and General Counsel Cynthia Ryan, who oversees safety, environment, and risk management for JM, said, “The Health and Safety leadership team worked to establish meaningful metrics beyond the mere tracking of standard threshold shift hearing loss cases in order to drive improvement in the employee hearing loss prevention program. These metrics form a pyramid, a hierarchy similar to JM’s standard safety pyramid, with the more proactive steps in the lower portions of the pyramid. This allows us to manage factors that impact hearing loss before serious and permanent damage occurs, and ideally before any loss occurs.” 

The model has been enthusiastically embraced by both plant managers and employees at JM, and is readily adaptable to other noise-exposed industries who wish to become proactive rather than reactive to the risk of noise-induced hearing loss among their workforce. For more information about the award, visit http://www.safeinsound.us/winners.html. 

About Johns Manville

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofing, and roof insulation, as well as fibers and nonwovens for commercial, industrial and residential applications. JM serves markets that include aerospace, automotive and transportation, air handling, appliance, HVAC, pipe and equipment, filtration, waterproofing, building, flooring, interiors and wind energy. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has annual sales of approximately $2.5 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. JM employs approximately 7,000 people and operates 45 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com.