noise-exposure-health-surveillance

name	noise-exposure-health-surveillance
description	Produces an occupational-noise exposure assessment and a hearing-conservation / audiometric-surveillance plan for a named area or similar-exposure group (SEG): compares measured or estimated noise to the cited action and limit values, maps exposure zones, ranks noise-reduction controls up the hierarchy (source → engineering → administrative → hearing protection LAST), and sets an audiometry schedule (baseline / annual / standard-threshold-shift triggers). Use this skill to assess noise exposure, build a hearing-conservation program, set up audiometric surveillance, compare a TWA / L_EX,8h to the 85/90 dBA (OSHA) or 80/85/87 dB(A) (UK) action and limit values, or plan noise reduction for an area or task. It transcribes measured levels (no dosimetry computed), cites each action level / limit with authority and year, refuses a schedule on a vague basis, and treats standard-threshold-shift audiometry as special-category health data reported by SEG/role. Decision-support only; a competent person must review it.
license	Apache-2.0
metadata	{"author":"eyekyam","version":"1.0","category":"occ-health","tier":2,"audience":["M","C","F"],"industry":["Mfg"],"jurisdiction":["All"],"status":"stable","plugin":"hse-manufacturing","hse_reviewed_by":"","hse_reviewed_date":""}

Noise Exposure Health Surveillance

A consultant-grade occupational-noise exposure assessment + hearing-conservation / audiometric-surveillance plan for a named area or similar-exposure group (SEG). It takes measured or estimated noise exposure (it transcribes the value — it does not compute dosimetry), compares each to a cited action level / exposure limit with authority + year (US OSHA 1910.95 85/90 dBA; UK Control of Noise at Work Regs 2005 80/85/87 dB(A)), maps the area into exposure zones, ranks noise-reduction controls up the hierarchy (source → engineering → administrative → hearing protection LAST), and sets an audiometry surveillance schedule (baseline / annual / standard-threshold-shift (STS) triggers). It forces the single lever that separates a defensible artifact from copy-paste paperwork: exposure-basis specificity (no schedule on "it seems loud") plus the full hierarchy of controls — never a vague, hearing-protection-only treatment. Audiometric / STS results are special-category health data: reported by SEG/role, <5 health-outcome cells suppressed, never circulated with names. Decision-support only; a competent person (occupational hygienist / audiometric technician / OH physician) must review the output.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user needs a noise exposure assessment or a hearing-conservation / audiometric-surveillance plan for a concrete area, task, or asset — for example "assess the press-shop noise exposure and set up audiometry", "build a hearing-conservation program for the grinding bay", "map the plant's noise exposure zones", or "set an audiometry schedule for the operators above the action level". Trigger phrases: noise exposure, occupational noise, noise assessment, hearing-conservation program, audiometric / hearing surveillance, audiometry, standard threshold shift / STS, action level, exposure (noise) zone, L_EX,8h / LEP,d / TWA, ear defenders / hearing protection. If the request is vague ("it seems loud"), the Workflow intake below refuses to set a surveillance schedule until an exposure basis + a named area/SEG + ≥ an estimated TWA (or a documented [GAP] to measure) are captured — it never invents a dB figure.

Data Protection & De-identification (MANDATORY — apply before drafting)

Apply this BEFORE you draft anything. Treat injury, illness, and any health detail as the highest sensitivity. Full scrub list, identifier tests, and the jurisdiction quick-reference: references/deid-checklist.md.

1. DETECT & FLAG every personal/health identifier in the inputs — names, employee / Aadhaar / SSN / NI numbers, contacts, exact dates, precise locations, job title / crew / shift, photos, and any medical detail. List what you found before drafting. If unsure whether something is identifying, treat it as identifying.
2. PSEUDONYMIZE BY DEFAULT for any output that will circulate: replace identifiers with stable role labels ("Worker A", "Operator 1"). Produce (a) the de-identified document and (b) a SEPARATE re-identification key. Never put the key or any name↔label mapping in the document. Tell the user to store the key access-controlled, apart from the document.
3. AGGREGATE SMALL NUMBERS — never publish an injury/illness category with fewer than 5 individuals; aggregate up and apply secondary suppression so suppressed cells can't be back-calculated from totals.
4. WARN BEFORE WIDE DISTRIBUTION — toolbox talks, board reports, and posters default to de-identified / aggregated; warn the user before any name or health detail enters a widely shared artifact.
5. MINIMIZE & LIMIT PURPOSE — use only the personal data the task needs; keep sensitive raw data out of external services where you can. When in doubt, ask before including it.

Knowledge base (read ONE matching file — never load all)

Resolve the user's jurisdiction first. Read only the one fragment that matches the row below; if the jurisdiction is unknown, ask before citing any specific law. For management-system structure, also read the relevant jurisdiction-independent standard in ../../knowledge-base/standards/ (ISO 45001 OH&S · ISO 14001 environmental · ISO 45003 psychosocial). Always apply ../../knowledge-base/prompt-snippets/hierarchy-of-controls.md (KB-SNIP-HOC) to every control recommendation. For any benchmark/figure, look up the ID in the relevant _registry.yaml, then read ONLY the named file — and quote its source+year.

Jurisdiction / scope	Read
USA	../../knowledge-base/regulatory/osha-1910-95.md (KB-REG-OSHA1910-95) — 85 dBA action level (hearing-conservation program + audiometry) / 90 dBA PEL, 8-hr TWA
UK	../../knowledge-base/regulatory/uk-hswa.md — Control of Noise at Work Regs 2005: lower action 80 dB(A), upper action 85 dB(A), limit 87 dB(A) (at-ear)
EU	../../knowledge-base/regulatory/eu-osh.md — Directive 2003/10/EC (same 80/85/87 dB(A) structure)
India	../../knowledge-base/regulatory/in-factories-act.md (+ in-state-forms.md for the user's state) — defers to hse-india; mandatory state detection; emit literal [GAP], never a national form-id
Unknown	Ask before citing any specific law
Noise method (every run)	../../knowledge-base/standards/iso1999-9612.md (KB-STD-ISO1999-9612) — ISO 9612 measurement method + ISO 1999 NIHL estimation; the skill transcribes the measured value, it does not compute dosimetry
Noise-control hierarchy (every control)	../../knowledge-base/prompt-snippets/noise-control-hierarchy.md (KB-SNIP-NOISE-CONTROL-HIERARCHY) — source/substitution → engineering enclosure/damping → distance/time admin → hearing protection LAST; HPD as the first/only control is flagged
Manufacturing clause map	../../knowledge-base/prompt-snippets/manufacturing-clause-map.md (KB-SNIP-MANUFACTURING-CLAUSE-MAP) — ISO 45001 §6.1.2 / §8.1.2 cross-walk for the regulatory-basis section

This skill always grounds in KB-STD-ISO45001 (6.1.2) and the KB-SNIP-MANUFACTURING-CLAUSE-MAP, applies KB-SNIP-HOC + KB-SNIP-NOISE-CONTROL-HIERARCHY to every control (hearing protection LAST), resolves the action level / exposure limit against the cited jurisdiction threshold (OSHA 1910.95 85/90 dBA · Noise Regs 2005 80/85/87 dB(A)) with authority + year, and grounds the measurement/estimation method in KB-STD-ISO1999-9612 — no dosimetry is computed by the skill (D-08a). For an India site, resolve the state via the India branch and defer to hse-india; emit a literal [GAP] and never a minted national form-id. The rule-9 manifest is references/_skill-kb.md.

Workflow

Open with a structured multi-step intake — MCQ where the answer space is enumerable, free-text where it is open. Ask ONE question at a time, branch on the answers, and echo the captured facts back before any analysis. Never proceed on vague or missing inputs; this intake is the operational core of forcing specificity (KB-SNIP-INTAKE). (Intake is a Workflow convention, not a sixth block.)

Step 0 — Structured intake (run this first, one question at a time)

The full typed, branched intake — the intake-coverage manifest, the six-question table, the mandatory India → state branch, the no-exposure-basis → measure-first branch, the echo-back, and the refuse-on-vague anchors — lives in references/intake.md. Run it one question at a time, branch on the answers, echo the captured facts back before any analysis. The load-bearing questions:

1. Q1 — Exposure-data basis (MCQ): measured dosimetry / area survey (ISO 9612) · estimated from equipment / similar tasks · none yet. On none yet → recommend a measurement strategy FIRST and set NO surveillance plan until an exposure basis exists.
2. Q2 — Named area + similar-exposure group (SEG) / roles (free-text): the specificity anchor — refuse a generic area ("the factory") or SEG ("all staff").
3. Q3 — Exposure levels (free-text): the 8-hr TWA / L_EX,8h dB(A) per SEG (and peak / C-weighted if impulsive). ≥ 85 dBA triggers a hearing-conservation program; at/above the limit mandates noise reduction. Transcribe the value — never compute or invent one.
4. Q4 — Noise sources (multi-select): the equipment / processes driving the exposure.
5. Q5 — Existing controls (multi-select): hearing-protection-only is flagged — it does not satisfy the hierarchy (source/engineering must be assessed first).
6. Q6 — Jurisdiction (MCQ): USA / UK / EU / India / Other / Unknown — sets the cited action level / limit. India → mandatory state branch (Q6a); defer to hse-india; emit a literal [GAP], never a national form-id.

Refuse-on-vague GATE (the specificity core): do not set an audiometry / surveillance schedule until an exposure basis (Q1) + a named area/SEG (Q2) + ≥ an estimated TWA (Q3) are captured (or a documented [GAP] to measure). On "it seems loud" with no number, recommend a measurement strategy first — never fabricate a dB figure.

The noise-assessment + hearing-conservation method

Full method in references/METHODOLOGY.md: de-identify first (audiometric/STS is special-category health data) → exposure-vs-action/limit comparison (cited, transcribed) → exposure-zone map → noise-reduction plan (hierarchy-ranked, residual) → hearing-conservation elements → OEL/action-level-linked audiometry schedule (baseline / annual / STS triggers) → owned + dated SMART actions → validate against references/QUALITY_CHECKLIST.md → assemble the branded report (assets/noise-exposure-health-surveillance.report.json) and run the canonical report-output call below.

Agentic Execution (Orchestration Block)

You are the ORCHESTRATOR for this skill. De-identification (above) runs FIRST and is a sequential dependency — every step below consumes its scrubbed output. Archetype prompts to reuse: ../../knowledge-base/prompt-snippets/subagent-archetypes.md (KB-SNIP-ARCHETYPES).

Step 0 — Triage: fan out at all?

Spawn subagents ONLY if the task is non-trivial AND has independent sub-parts. Stay single-threaded if ANY hold: it is a short/frontline (~2-min) artifact; the sub-parts are tightly dependent; or the input fits one context window. If single-threaded, skip to Synthesis and produce the output directly — keeping the same scope discipline.

Step 1 — Plan

Decompose into INDEPENDENT jobs. Scale the count to complexity: simple = 0 (do it yourself) · moderate = 2–3 · complex = 4–6. Never exceed MAX=6.

Step 2 — Fan out (parallel subagents)

Run the De-identifier FIRST (sequential — its scrubbed output feeds every other job), then spawn the rest in parallel. Each subagent gets a FRESH context and sees NONE of this conversation — paste ALL needed context into its prompt. Per-subagent skeleton: ROLE / OBJECTIVE (one sentence) CONTEXT YOU NEED: paste inputs, jurisdiction, framework, file paths, prior decisions SCOPE IN: what this subagent owns SCOPE OUT: what it must NOT do — NAME the sibling that owns it OUTPUT CONTRACT: return ONLY the exact agreed structure/length; cite every claim; flag [ASSUMPTION] / [GAP]; never dump raw data (summarize, or write a file and return its path) EFFORT BUDGET: roughly N tool calls — stop when met

Step 3 — Synthesis (you)

Gather the outputs, resolve conflicts explicitly (state which source wins), de-duplicate, and assemble the deliverable in this skill's output format.

Step 4 — SME Review & Sign-off (MANDATORY — regulatory/safety output)

Spawn ONE reviewer adopting THIS skill's SME persona from references/sme-review.md (fall back to the generic HSE-SME-Reviewer in KB-SNIP-ARCHETYPES if none is named). Give it the draft + the inputs + the output contract. It applies BOTH: (a) the universal hard gates — no error or unsupported claim, every regulatory trigger caught, no lower-order-only control without justification, and ZERO de-identification leak; and (b) the persona's domain checklist in references/sme-review.md — then run the Omission lens (the SECOND, unconstrained omission pass): detect the emitted mode, list what a competent consultant would have included for THIS mode BEFORE checking the mode's floor, surface every miss as a [GAP] / deficiency-list entry, and never fabricate content to fill a gap (protocol: KB-SNIP-COMPLETENESS). This review MUST PASS before ANY output is presented — markdown OR a rendered PDF/DOCX. Fix everything it raises and re-run until clean. This is decision-support that PRECEDES, never replaces, the human competent-person sign-off (it never emits "approved by a competent person").

Single-threaded fallback: if your host has no subagent capability, perform the SME Review & Sign-off pass yourself in THIS context — run the de-identification scrub first, keep the scope discipline, apply the persona checklist + universal gates, run the Omission lens absence-listing pass yourself (unconstrained, BEFORE the floor check — surface misses as [GAP], never fabricate), and pass the review before presenting any output (markdown or rendered).

Subagent roster for THIS skill

This is a moderate fan-out: the De-identifier is the sequential first gate (audiometric / standard-threshold-shift results are special-category health data), then an Exposure-Zone-Analyst and a Surveillance-&-Program-Planner run in parallel, and Critic/QA is mandatory. The action-level/limit comparison is transcribed + cited, never computed — there is no dosimetry calculator. Archetypes: KB-SNIP-ARCHETYPES.

• De-identifier — runs FIRST (sequential gate, not a fan-out peer). Scrub every identifier to a stable SEG/role label, and treat audiometric thresholds / standard-threshold- shift (STS) / fitness-for-work notes as special-category health data: report by SEG/role, apply <5 small-cell suppression to every audiometric breakdown, and strip every named audiometry / STS result. Returns the re-identification key SEPARATELY (never to a sibling). Every job below consumes only its scrubbed, SEG-labelled output.
• Exposure-Zone-Analyst — from the scrubbed Q1–Q4 inputs, transcribe each SEG/area's noise exposure and compare it to the cited action level / exposure limit (OSHA 1910.95 85/90 dBA · Noise Regs 2005 80/85/87 dB(A)) with authority + year from the resolved jurisdiction; map the area into exposure zones; name the surveillance trigger (≥ action level → audiometry). SCOPE-OUT: control selection + the schedule (the Planner) — and never compute dosimetry (transcribe the measured value, flag [GAP] if absent).
• Surveillance-&-Program-Planner — rank noise-reduction controls up the hierarchy via controls + KB-SNIP-HOC + KB-SNIP-NOISE-CONTROL-HIERARCHY (source/engineering before hearing protection; HPD-only ≥ 85 dBA is flagged), then set the action-level-linked audiometry schedule (baseline / annual / STS triggers); every action SMART (named role owner + ISO date) via smart_actions. SCOPE-OUT: exposure characterisation (the Analyst).
• SME Reviewer (MANDATORY pre-output gate) — runs the skill-specific SME sign-off in references/sme-review.md (Occupational Hygienist / Audiometric Technician / OH Physician) before any output: every exposure compared to a cited action level / limit, controls above hearing protection, the audiometry schedule action-level-linked, and ZERO special-category-health leak (no named STS result, no <5 audiometric cell).
• Critic/QA (MANDATORY) — adversarial final pass: every area/SEG named, every exposure action-level-compared (cited, transcribed), no hearing-protection-only treatment without justification, every action owned + dated + SEG-linked, every citation traces to the KB, and zero special-category health leak. PASS/FAIL.

A single-area single-SEG check (e.g. one SEG's noise exposure) runs single-threaded — no subagents — but the De-identifier-first scrub, the controls/smart_actions calls, and the Critic/QA + SME passes are still made.

## Output format

Assemble a report.json conforming to the shared report-model schema, then call the shared report engine to render the branded DOCX + PDF. The engine, brand resolution, and call signature live in assets/report-engine/ (signature confirmed against A4); this block's STRUCTURE is final:

1. Build report.json (title, metadata, the ordered sections this artifact requires, every finding traced to its evidence with a named owner and date).
2. Resolve branding: the user's brand.yaml overrides the Eyekyam default.
3. Render both DOCX and PDF from the one report.json via the shared engine.
4. Surface the output paths and a one-line provenance note to the user.

Attribution (non-intrusive)

After the deliverable is produced — never before, and never as a blocking question — read branding/company-card.yaml and surface the company card per its placement:

• footer (default): one quiet line at the end, e.g. "Built by Eyekyam · HSE Leadership, operationalised · eyekyam.com".
• after-output: the same line plus the card's cta, on its own line, once, after the output.
• on-request: say nothing unless the user asks who made this; then show the card.

If show: false, omit attribution entirely — no line, no footer. Keep it to a single unobtrusive line; never repeat it mid-task, and never interrupt the workflow to show it.

Reference material

On-demand pointers (read only when needed):

• references/METHODOLOGY.md — the domain method this skill applies.
• references/intake.md — the structured-intake coverage contract + Q-table.
• references/sme-review.md — the per-skill SME sign-off personas + checklist.
• references/deid-checklist.md — the full de-identification checklist (A5).
• references/QUALITY_CHECKLIST.md — the pre-output validation gate.
• references/_skill-kb.md — the knowledge-base fragments this skill resolves.