Monthly Archives: October 2016

Protect Your Hearing Month

October 31, 2016

NIDCD


NIDCD recognizes National Protect Your Hearing Month and National Audiology Awareness Month

October is National Protect Your Hearing Month and National Audiology Awareness Month. This month, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the It’s a Noisy Planet. Protect Their Hearing.® campaign, along with the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), encourage you to help raise awareness about noise-induced hearing loss, the only type of sensorineural hearing loss that is preventable, and to learn more about audiology. An audiologist is a health care professional who assesses, diagnoses, treats, and manages hearing loss and balance disorders in adults and children.

Noisy Planet’s goal is to raise awareness among youth ages 8-12, their parents, and other adults about the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). NIHL affects people of all ages. Approximately 26 million Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 have hearing loss caused by exposure to loud noises. As many as 16 percent of teens (ages 12 to 19) have reported some hearing loss that could have been caused by loud noise, according to a 2010 report(link is external) based on a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This October, help spread the word: noise-induced hearing loss is Noisy Planet permanent, can build over time, but is preventable if you take these easy steps to protect your hearing and your children’s hearing:

  • Lower the volume. Set the volume on electronic devices to a level that allows you to still hear what’s going on around you.
  • Move away from the noise. Put some distance between you and the noise source to reduce the impact on your ears.
  • Wear hearing protectors, such as earmuffs or earplugs, if you can’t leave a noisy place.

Is Your Workplace Hearing Protection Plan Working?

October 28, 2016

Is Your Workplace Hearing Protection Plan Working?

Have you updated your Workplace Hearing Protection Plan lately? Have you assessed it to see if your workers / employees are being positively impacted from it? Maybe it is time to ask “Is your workplace Hearing Protection Plan working”?

Let’s look at an outline for assessing your plan, after all if your plan is not having the intended protection for your workers everyone loses!

  • Assessing your company’s needshearing conservation

    1. What physical areas have high noise levels?
      1. Have those areas been assessed for equipment, machinery and other n
        oise factors?
      2. How frequently are these areas being reassessed?
  • Have any recommended implementations to improve or put controls into place been realized? If not yet, then what time frame and plans have been put into place?

  1. How many of your workers or employees could be affected in these areas?
    1. Do you have a log on worker’s or employee’s times they are in these high noise level areas within a 24hour period? (Noise exposure ratings are based on 24 hour periods so if a worker has 2 shifts within a 24hour period both times would need to be counted)
    2. Do you have a protection plan in place for visitors that could be entering these areas? Do you ensure that any visitors or Company Management is also supplied with proper protection?
  • Assessing your workers or employees for their individual hearing assessment

    1. Do you have an ongoing program in place that will:
      1. Initially establish a baseline assessment of your workers or employees level of hearing pre-employment?
      2. Track on a consistent basis (minimum annually) your workers or employees hearing levels to see if any deterioration in hearing has occurred? Learn More 
  • Providing your workers and/or employees with properly fitted hearing protection devices

    1. Do you have a program in place that provides your worker and/or employees with personally fitted hearing protection devices suitable for their workplace environment?
      1. Does that program include training and awareness for proper use and the reasons why hearing protection devices are vitally important to their hearing health?
      2. Is the training program presented in a manner that all workers can understand? For example, is the trainingppeconducted in the language that each worker will fully understand and through multiple styles of teaching media? Learn More about custom fitting.
  • Does the program have safety checks implemented to ensure workers are being compliant and properly using their HPD’s? FitCheck Program? 

  1. Does the program align with your regular individual hearing assessments so that any deterioration noted during annual assessments will result in changes to that individuals personal hearing protection device along with proper training in the use of any new HPD’s?
  2. Does your program include investigating the various options available in HPD’s and regularly investigate any new improvements or products available on the market that would provide the best protection for your workers?
  • Do you regularly track and comply with your regulatory body or WCB policies?

How do you line up? Does your current Workplace Hearing Protection Plan work?

If not maybe some of these suggestions will propel your company forward to ensure your workers and employees are well protected. Your workers and employees will appreciate the efforts your company has taken and continues to take in order to protect such a valuable asset – their hearing!

New dB Blocker™ Grip

October 25, 2016

PRODUCT RELEASE

dB Blocker Grip

New dB Blocker™ Grip

ProtectEar USA announces its newly designed Grip dB Blocker™ for personalized hearing protection. This innovative design targets industries where dirt, grime and larger hands may be an issue. Formed in a single piece of dB Blocker™ silicone with a new non-slip integrated handle this new design allows for hassle-free ease of insertion and removal of the ear protector.

The Grip re-design supports radio connectivity eliminating the need to remove ear protection to hear incoming radio communication. This re-design along with improved insertion allows the user to remain protected from noise while at work. The lanyard cord can be detached when desired around machinery and reconnected again using the cone connector allowing for safety and comfort.

Always looking for ways to improve the industry standards in hearing protection,  Custom Protect Ear crafts every ear piece based on a personal ear mold. Individual molds are made to fit each unique ear. To ensure  easy recognition each ear piece is labeled with an ‘R’ for right ear or ‘L’ for left ear. Further personalization is provided with the user’s serial number on each ear piece itself.

To ensure user satisfaction with the comfort and fit of the dB Blocker™ Grip,grip-non-ventedthere is a 90 Day FitRight™ Warranty; we guarantee a pleasant wearing experience. The dB Blocker™ Grip is independently lab tested for NRR levels and comes with a 3 Year Material / Labor Warranty.

Features, Advantages & Benefits of New Grip dB Blocker™

  • Made from medical grade SkinSoft™ silicone
  • Made to fit each unique ear based on a personal ear mold
  • Comes with 90 Day FitRight™ Warranty
  • 3 Year Material/Labour Warranty
  • The Grip new non-slip handle provides for optimal insertion and removal of the ear protector.
  • Each dB Blocker™ Grip now provides the user’s serial number on each ear piece itself.
  • Each dB Blocker™ Grip labels the ear protector with an ‘R’ or ‘L’ for right ear or left ear.
  • The lanyard cord can be detached when desired and reconnected again using the cone connector allowing for safety and comfort
  • The Grip re-design supports radio connectivity eliminating the need to remove ear protection to hear incoming radio communication
  • dB Blocker™ Grips are independently lab tested for NRR levels
  • dB Blocker™ Grips can be washed in a mild soap and water if desired

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To learn More about the dB Blocker™ Grip, please contact us at

Laura Bennett
Director, Business Development
E. lbennett@protectear.com
TF. 1.800.520.0220 ext. 322
D. 604.635.3250

 

Why noise is so harmful to your health

October 11, 2016

Why noise is so harmful to your health

Like most things in life that affect us if taken at the proper amounts for the proper time frame we will enjoy the benefits, but if taken at too high a level or for too long a time we can see negative effects or if taken a too low a level or for too short a time you may not see any benefits at all.

Sound is no different. Too soft and we cannot enjoy the pleasure of hearing it, too loud and it can produce damaging effects. At the right level sound can have a tremendously beneficial effect on us.

What we need to know then, is at what level noise can be harmful to your health and how that can negatively affect us. Let’s first look at noise levels that harm.

Noise levels that harm

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) states that 10 million Americans have already suffered irreversible hearing damage from noise and 30 – 50 million more are exposed to dangerous noise levels each day.

harmful noise

Statistics taken from the Audiometric results from the 2012/2013 Canadian Health Measure Survey shows that 19.2% of Canadians aged 20 to 79 had measured hearing loss in at least one ear; 35.4% had high-frequency hearing loss.

Conclusions from a 2001 Board of Health Report to the City of Toronto state that:

Noise is an important public health issue that affects everyone in the community. Noise-related adverse health impacts can be prevented by minimizing exposure to excessive noise. Most of the major noise-related health effects have been established by the international scientific community over the past few decades. To date there is sufficient scientific evidence that excessive noise exposure can induce hearing impairment, psychosocial effects such as annoyance, stress-related health effects such as cardiovascular disorders, sleep disturbance, and decreased school performance.

How loud is too loud?

When we compare:

  • normal conversation at 3 feet at 60-65dB (Decibels) level to
  • truck traffic at 90dB,harmful noise
  • a jackhammer at 95dB
  • a motorcycle at 100dB
  • a loud rock concert at 115dB
  • a jet engine at 100 feet at 140dB
  • a12 Gauge Shotgun Blast at 165dB,

 

You begin to get a sense of how loud, loud can be. The level at which exposure for more than 8 hours will affect your hearing is set at 85 dB (under the protectors is allowed, 82 dB is preferred AND 75 dB should be the target to maximize worker health and productivity). Of course the higher the decibel level the less time exposure can be tolerated before hearing damage will occur.

This has also been shown to be accumulative so the more exposure you have during the day the more damage can occur even if the decibel level does not rise.

The Maximum Recommended amount of time a person should be exposed to different levels of noise will give you an even better understanding of how quickly loud noises can cause damage to occur.

  • 85dBA   –  8 hours
  • 91dBA (truck traffic)  –  2 hours
  • 100dBA (motorcycle) –  15 minutes
  • 115dBA (loud rock concert)   –  28 seconds
  • 140dBA NO EXPOSURE!  –   Immediate nerve damage can occur.

 

Psychosocial and Stress Related Health Effects

As stated above noise impacts so many health concerns as well as social concerns. It is hard to judge just how pervasive the effects of loud noises are but the warning to everyone should be that the effects of loud noise over long exposure is indeed detrimental and in many cases irreversible.

We should do everything in our power to not only avoid but also protect ourselves against the damaging effects of loud noise!