What You Need To Know About Hearing Protection Equipment
In today's day and age of the industrial worker, many organizations function to ensure optimum workplace safety and hazard free environments. One primary feature of any workplace safety program is in the prevention of hearing loss. It has been said that as many as ten percent of Americans have a hearing loss that affects their ability to comprehend everyday speech. The most common origin of hearing loss is the excessive exposure to extreme noise levels. If you are an industrial worker and work in an environment of excessive noise, there are things you need to do to protect yourself from hearing loss. The standard means of preventing hearing loss is to ensure you are wearing hearing protection equipment. However, using hearing protection equipment is not just critical in industrial settings. You should wear it even when you are using power tools, loud yard equipment, firearms, or when you are using a motorcycle or snowmobile. Research has shown that regular and consistent exposure to noises higher than 85 dB (decibels) are the source of gradual or slow hearing loss in a large percentage of people. Further, noises louder than 85 dB will ensure this damage occurs at a much faster rate. When ears are unprotected, obviously your ears are exposed to more noise. This means that it will take less time, as much as half the time, for the exposure to cause hearing loss. In an industrial setting, the most noise exposure that is allowed is no more than 115 decibels for no more than fifteen minutes a day. Any noise that occurs over 140 decibels is not allowed.
Most workplace safety and health governing bodies will enforce hearing safety programs in work situations that are noisy. This involves hearing tests to those individuals that are exposed to 85 decibels or more of noises during a standard workday. Hearing protection equipment is also a regular enforcement for individuals when noise tends to be louder than 90 decibels during a standard eight hour day. Generally when noise levels show that hearing protection equipment is required, the employer is required to provide them. This includes a minimum of one kind of earplug and one kind of earmuff and must not incur costs to the employees. How hearing protection equipment works is that they lessen the intensity of noises that gets to the eardrum. They are in the form of either earplug or earmuff. Plugs are inserts that you can put into your outer ear canal so that there is a snug seal and the entire area of the ear canal is plugged. If it does not fit properly, the ear canal can become easily irritated and they are available in a wide range of sizes and shapes. If absolutely necessary, you can have earplugs custom made or have them attached to headbands. Earmuffs are devices that fit on the outside of the entire outer ear and they produce an air seal so that there is a block on the entire area of the ear canal. They are generally held in place by a headband that is adjustable. The best plugs and earmuffs work generally the same equally, though it has been said that plugs are more suited for low level noises, and muffs for high level noises. When hearing protection equipment is used in any increased noise level situation, it has been said that they can decrease noise levels by anywhere from 15 to 30 decibels. When both types of hearing protection equipment are used at the same time, an additional 10-15 decibel level of protection is added. |