Mail-In Audiometer Calibration for Pennsylvania Employers

Mail-in calibration for Pennsylvania employers

Foster Special Instruments calibrates audiometers at our bench at 6941 Cornell Road, Suite B, Blue Ash, Ohio 45242, near Cincinnati. You ship the unit to us, we calibrate it to ANSI S3.6, and it comes back to your Pennsylvania location with a calibration certificate for your hearing conservation file.

Ground carriers move packages from anywhere in Pennsylvania to Cincinnati every day. We calibrate most major brands whether or not you bought from us, including Benson, Tremetrics, Maico, GSI, and Welch Allyn / Hill-Rom.

Who we serve in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania hearing conservation programs sit in some of the loudest and some of the quietest workplaces in the country. Steel mills, foundries, metal fabrication, and heavy equipment plants run noise monitoring programs, while the large health systems in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia keep audiometers in occupational health clinics and employee screening rooms.

Whichever side you are on, the instrument has to be defensible when someone reviews the records. We calibrate for plants, hospitals, clinics, and school districts across the state.

OSHA and the audiometer in Pennsylvania

Private employers in Pennsylvania fall under federal OSHA, so 29 CFR 1910.95 is the rule your hearing conservation program is measured against. Audiometer calibration to ANSI S3.6 is the working benchmark, and the certificate that comes back with your unit is the record to keep on file.

In Pennsylvania, as everywhere, OSHA 29 CFR 1910.95(h) ties audiometric testing to audiometers that meet ANSI S3.6. The work happens in layers, and each layer has an owner.

• Daily: your staff listens to the audiometer and tests a person with stable known thresholds. This is the employer's check.
• Annually: an acoustic calibration check. Our bench covers this.
• Every two years: an exhaustive calibration. We perform this as well.

29 CFR 1910.95(h), Appendix E

Packing and shipping your audiometer

Pack the audiometer in its original case or a padded box. Send the headphones, bone vibrator, and response switch that you use with it, because they are calibrated as a set. Include the serial number, your company name, a contact person, and the return address in Pennsylvania.

Use a tracked, insured label for the trip out of Pennsylvania. When the unit is back on your bench, the certificate lists the results, and a reminder goes out before the next due date.

On-site visits and booth testing in Pennsylvania

Western Pennsylvania is within driving range of our Blue Ash shop, so on-site calibration is possible when several instruments or sites can be batched into one trip.

A single audiometer in Pennsylvania is better served by mail-in. Call the office and we will tell you which makes sense for your setup.

A booth in Pennsylvania that is measured on site against ANSI S3.1 gets its result printed as the Room Acoustics Level Test section on the audiometer certificate.

Loaners and other instruments

If your audiometer needs an extensive repair, we lend you a free loaner so your testing keeps going. Programs in Pennsylvania often send other instruments with the audiometer, which saves a second shipment.

• Spirometers and the 3 L syringes used to check them.
• Breath alcohol testers. We calibrate them and train technicians. Foster does not sell or perform drug or alcohol testing.
• Vision testers.
• EKG machines.

Pennsylvania cities we hear from

Mail-in works from every part of Pennsylvania. Cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, Scranton, Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, and Bethlehem are all reachable the same way, and so is any town not on this list. Call 513-891-0868 or see the main audiometer calibration page for the full service.